Happy Birthday Mom! You are beautiful!

  I am so blessed to have a completely incredible mother! My mom is so much fun! I hope that she is able to go skiing today! My mom is an amazing and she is really good at skiing. As a little way of saying Happy Birthday Mom, I just wanted to share a memory about the amazing lady who raised me.
 When I was little and my mom would bake she would let me stand on a chair next to her so that I could reach the counter and "help" her bake. I am sure I was probably more trouble than good but I loved feeling useful as I tried to taste the dough and help bake the cookies. One day when my mom and I were baking I smelt the vanilla and LOVED the way that it smelt. It smelt so delicious and wonderful I begged my mom to let me taste it. She told me that she had done the same thing with her mom and that vanilla does not taste as good as it smells. I continued to beg her saying that I would like the flavor even if she didn't. It smelt so amazing that I was convinced it could not possibly taste bad. Finally my mom let me taste just a little bit of vanilla. It was awful of course but I was and am still so grateful that my mom let me try the vanilla. Like most things in life my mom gives me wise advice and steps back and allows me to make decisions.  Here is a picture of my Mom and I at Hans and my wedding.

Photography by Ondriana Deluca

Isn't she beautiful? 

Her dress is from Shabby Apple and I hope that she has an AWESOME birthday and  that she likes her birthday present from Hans and I :]

Faithlessness and the Faithful One

2 Timothy 2:11-13

The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us; 

if we are faithless, he remains faithful-

for he cannot deny himself. 

God is so awesome. I truly believe that He is always faithful. I have to say that there are times when I have not been faithful like I wish that I was and I still saw the amazing faithfulness of God throughout my unfaithfulness. The christian faith is frequently used as a label but the truth is the life of a true believer is something that I am striving to be able to even claim. I want to say that I am wholly surrendered to the LORD and that I am trusting Him in EVERYTHING that I do but the truth is I am a work in progress and there is still a long way to for me to go. God is always faithful. I cling to that truth. Luke 9:23 &24 says

And he said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. This means that I am supposed to be giving God everything everyday. Time, thoughts, ambitions, decisions... I keep thinking about it and the truth is I have to wonder if what we call a luke warm christian is even a christian at all. This makes me really evaluate my own life. I know that I am not giving God my everything all the time and honestly I know that there is a lot in my life that I just need to let go of and place at the feet of God. I am encouraged that God is always faithful. That is so encouraging.... but I am also a bit overwhelmed by how much help I need. Selfishness is so easy. Following God.... I want to say that it seems really hard because sometimes it seems like only doing bad gets you anywhere but then God says if you love the world you hate me. He also says that "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." I know that I can trust God about this. He is always trust worthy... even if the christian life might seems hard or even impossible at times I need to remember that surrendering myself wholly to the LORD is the only way that I will ever understand what His burden really is light and that yoke is easy. I also need to remember this daily and pick up his cross every day. I have such a long way to God. Praise God that he never leaves us hanging. 

Grace

I am really learning about the concept of grace lately. I still have so much to learn but I feel like sharing a little bit about what I have been learning about grace and how it applies to me. 

The fifth definition of this word is probably the one that fits this situation the best.

Confession: I noticed recently how judgey I can get about those around me when the truth is I am just as rude, self-absorbed, mistake-ridden, ugly, and strange as anyone who I judge. 

What to do: Repentance and Grace. 

Lately I have been fascinated by the verse in Philippians that says 

Therefore, by beloved as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence by much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

I have always considered myself more of a Calvinist in that I have always stuck with the once saved always saved doctrine. However, this verse brings a few things to mind. First of all, YES we are blessed with the grace of God but secondly we need to remember that this is a God who is righteous, holy, good, faithful and trustworthy. He is always consistent and cannot be anything contrary to his character. Yes God is loving but we must remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and my God is the God who because of His love sent His only son to die for sin because sin is that wicked and that gross. God who is righteous and perfect and loving had a whole group of His people swallowed by the earth  when they sinned. God is so great and I want to have a very personal relationship with God but I also want to remember that this relationship that I have with Him is a gift of grace! It is an honor and I am told to work this gift of salvation out with fear and trembling. That seems like something to be taken very seriously to me.

In Matthew 7 Jesus says Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will measure you. 

I am feel so convicted by this because I know that I judge people for the silliest reasons but I could probably not pass my own standards. This is pretty embarrassing but mostly very humbling. I do not want to have everyone looking at or scrutinizing my life so why should I go around doing that to others? It bugs me that I can be so quick to judge or scrutinize the lives of others when I don't even have my own life in order. Since Hans and I got married I have every so often gotten a comment from one of my friends or acquaintances telling me how I should be doing marriage. I sometimes get so annoyed because a lot of these comments have come from people who are not married. When I think about this thought I know I am guilty of the same thing. It can be the easiest thing in the world to make criticisms about things that I know nothing about. Maybe that person is so big because they were abused their whole life. Maybe that guy dresses weird because he is poor. Maybe that girl is always making rude comments because she is just insecure about herself. Maybe I need to have a lot more grace for the people around me. I am FAR from perfect and I am really grateful for the grace that God gives me. Unfortunately too often I find myself acting like the man who had all his debts washed away only for him to turn around and oppress someone because they could not pay him back for that small amount. I have had ALL my debts washed clean by God and the tab was higher than I could have every paid off. I need to make sure that I am extending that grace to those around me. I need to get rid of my measurements of perfections or what is just right or just wrong and remember that my job is to love and not judge. This does not mean that I should encourage someone to do the wrong thing but I defiantly should not judge them for it. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says: 

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

I am so grateful to be covered by grace. I need to remember to show the same grace and love to others that God shows to me every single day. 

So Behind....

I know that I haven't been staying very updated with this lately but I don't know when I would have the time to. School has been very busy and as much as I would like to promise myself that I will keep going with this I know that I probably will not for at least a while. Perhaps I will get a bit more time to focus on this over the break but I don't know that I will. Also lately I have been debating about what I want this blog to be. Right now I don't think it really has a direction. More than anything this blog is just a random place for my inconsistent memos. I want this to be more consistent but I don't know when that will happen. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for God, my family, friends and my AMAZING husband Hans! I am blessed beyond what I ever would have hoped for.

Cars

So recently the car broke down and I am going to have to get a new one. I have become fascinated by the Volkswagen 181aka The Thing!

It is so awesome and was featured on the show Switched at Birth... Well I'm not sure featured is the right word but that show got me very curious...  Next I saw this fantastic picture and now I would really like to own one...

I'm not convinced this little dream of mine is actually realistic right now or that I will still feel the same about this beautiful yet crazy looking vehicle once it starts to get really cold but for now I am drooling a little over this beauty. In the mean time I will just continue to enjoy looking at pictures. I am such a girl in so many respects with this car. I did not look at the specs or engine details. I just wanted to know how awesome it looks.... O dear. If I were actually going to buy it I would care about the other stuff too but since I don't think that will happen I am just going to enjoy the view knowing that in my dream reality this car has awesome gas milage, will NEVER break down, does great in all types of weather and can plow through anything (like a herd of angry deer)... *Sigh* I never thought this would be my dream car but it probably will be for at least the next few months... beautiful. 

My dad is so wonderful!

I am blessed with an amazing Dad. HE ROCKS

At my cousin's wedding :]

AWESOME DRESS TO DROOL OVER!!!!

I completely LOVE this dress! If I could own it I would! 

Here is the link to this sensational dress! ENJOY!!! Also if you can get this wonderful dress then I am happy for you and I hope that you enjoy this! This is such a fun and elegant dress that I feel like it just needs to be shared! Enjoy!

Something for the Lads

Okay so I know that I am a female but I look forward to hearing about this from my husband. There is a website called Bad Ass of the Week that is pretty much what it sounds like. [I am a huge fan] The truth is Hans (my awesome husband) found this website and will randomly tell me about whatever badA he's reading about. I think this is a very worthwhile website to check out. It's super fun and although there is a fair amount of cussing I really enjoy the stories of these people. Especially when it's heroic people. Here are some stories I've really liked that Hans has shared with me: Mad Jack, Humanitarian and Serious Warrior Jean-Pierre, Grace O'Malley, Max Hardberger, Joshua, and Joe Medicine Crow.
Enjoy this fantastic site :]

99%???? What?

Okay has anyone else seen the 99% stuff and do you get it? There was a huge parade for this in Seattle the other weekend when I was there. I am just a little curious what this group's aim is.

I LOVE JCREW...

So I love JCrew and think that everyone should know how wonderful that store is. Right now they're having a sale that is pretty great and I thought I would just make that known. 

Here are their sight's info along with the email that I got. There are some disclaimers that I left out of the picture but I would say be sure to check it out because their stuff is adorable and completely worth checking out! If I had more money I would probably spend so much of that at j.Crew. LOVE THAT PLACE and if you don't know about it then now is a great time to remedy that. 

Happy Belated Birthday Jessica

So This weekend was my amazing sister's birthday! She is such a champ! I am beyond blessed to have her in my life! I had planned to visit her but unfortunately that did not work out as planned.

I love her so much and I am beyond blessed to have her in my life. Jess Happy Birthday! I hope you had an awesome day and that you know how much I love you!

Anyone who has a chance should get to know Jess because she is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. She's amazing. Hopefully I'll get to be with her for her birthday next year!

Also: She's just so stylin'! I should do a series on my sisters amazing style. She's so precious. 

Dear Blog World,

SO The truth is I don't have anything super important to say today EXCEPT that ANYONE and EVERYONE should absolutely check out the awesome photoblog by my friend Matt! I mean who knew he was so amazing behind a camera right? Well I am throughly impressed. Here are a few of my favorites that he's done!

Also If you are just more into pictures less into blogs, well why are you here and Here's a link to his Flickr account! 


And just a side note. I have SUPER impressive friends. It's a fact.

SEATTLE!

I love that city! I had so much fun visiting Seattle this weekend with my husband and cousins! I can't wait to go back! 

LOVE IT THERE! 

Also: Sounders Won and they are so much fun to watch! I never knew that I could enjoy a sporting event so much! I mean that game rivaled my love of Hockey which is a big deal! I strongly suggest watching a sounders game live sometime! It is well worth the cost of a ticket and the time spent getting to the game and watching it! Also The game was great but I haven't loaded pictures yet so here is one from Mozzer on Flickr

I am so ready for my hair to be even this long. I miss it.

I just want to be able to have the option of putting it up. 

I love Hans. He is such a blessing to me.

Bike Trip Part VII

 After meeting Tony and getting SO much help from him Hans and I worked at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center as volunteers for a day. It is a really cool place and I would absolutely encourage you to call and see if you can volunteer for them if you belief in what that camp is all about. I'm sure it's googlable. Yep it is.  Any ways. I think that was fun. It was also great to get time with my grandparents. From there Hans and I biked to Tillamook where there is a fantastic Cheese Factory!!!! Also they have amazing ice cream. I would visit that town just for the cheese and ice cream. Truly.

Bike Trip Part VI: Tony

Tony

Tony was so cool. He helped Hans and I in such a huge way. He saw Hans and I when he was driving home from work. What was so funny is that Hans was pumping my tire at the time and so Tony only saw me with my thumb out (I might add that this was the first and only time that I ever successfully got someone to pull over for Hans and I) and Hans was down pumping my flat tire and so Tony said that he "saw this little boy with his hand out and I just couldn't figure out how that little boy could carry so much luggage." Haha he thought I was a little boy and that Hans was part of the luggage. SO funny. Any ways, He came back got Hans and I then took us to tacos and beer "better atmosphere in the bar" and we had tacos as Toni told us about his life then took us to get slime before taking us to an old friend of his who had owned a bike shop. The guy was so nice! He went above and beyond any expectations Hans or I had. Then his friend who had owned the bike shop did the same thing. Above and beyond my or Hans expectations. He figured out what was wrong with our bikes and set us in the right direction! We got to Astoria that night and figured out that a ride to Cannon beach would cost the same as a night at a hotel so we took a taxi ( That was a first for me) And stayed the night with my amazing grandparents who were spending some time there for fun :) That was such a great day and it was such a gift that God sent us Toni. Also, Praise God that Hans and I are so blessed that we ran into Tony and got to see the grandparents that night!

Bike Trip Part V

When Hans and I woke up the next morning our assumption was that since we had already had all the flats we would be able to make it to either Astoria, Oregon or Cannon Beach, Oregon. We really wanted to stay in Cannon Beach because we wanted to spend time with my grandparents. On our way we rode along a really pretty road. We wanted to get to this ferry at a convenient time but unfortunately we did not know what time the ferry would leave so we just had to guess. We guessed and ended up being a little late and waiting about an hour. It wasn't bad though because then we got a chance to hang out on an island that was about 3 miles long. It was a pretty cool place. It's called Puget Island and is really small and full of fields and horses. I am not sure if I would live there of not. The two ways off are a ferry and a bridge towards the Washington side. The town seemed like it was not exactly thriving but I only biked through the town so perhaps that was just it's off season. Who knows. ANY WAYS. I am glad that Hans and I were able to see that area. I had never seen that area before.
We kept riding and I had like 3 flats in a row. That was not so fun. Hans and I were pretty bummed and started hitch hiking. We got picked up by this big truck. The guy didn't get out of his truck and at first I wasn't sure what to think. But then I prayed about it and felt fine. Hans and I loaded our bikes into the back of his truck then went and hoped in the truck. We met the man driving the truck whose name was Toni. He told us that he just got off work and that we were lucky because he wanted to take his motor cycle to work today but then changed his mind at the last second. We told Toni about our bike troubles so he asked us if we knew what slime is. I DID NOT. I thought he was asking me if I knew what WD-40 is... HERE is what slime is:

So that is what slime is. Toni suggested that we get some slime so that our bike tires would stop popping. Then he asked us if we liked tacos and were over 21. To both we answered YES and then Toni took us to Tacos and beer in a bar. It was VERY nice of him. Also the Tacos ROCKED!

I am going to have to talk more about Toni soon. He was such a cool guy... VERY Gracious. 

Bike Trip Part IV

I hope that I did not forget too much about the bike trip in the time that I have been away... So here is my attempt at continuing in sharing about Hans and my bike trip. The next day when Hans and I woke up and Hans changed one of my bike tires from me. It had gone flat in the night. I don't think I really shared this but the day before when we had all those wrong turns and everything THEN we went through this strange area where it seemed that there was a lot of sharp metal. I got some in my tire and then after Hans and I changed the tire we were SO convinced that everything would be fast and that we would make excellent time that day. Unfortunately where Hans changed the tire we hadn't seen some broken glass. We dropped off some unnecessary items at the post office and sent them to ourselves. From there we headed out and stopped part way into the foggy day so that we could buy some coffee/chai tea at a cute little coffee stand in Centralia. I ended up getting around 2 flat tires that day and it was so nuts because we had already changed it that morning. Because of all the flats we got a ride for about 7 miles from a really cool dad and son. They were on their way to help their father in law and grandfather fix his jeep. They were so nice. It was very helpful for Hans and I to be able to get the extra 7 miles. We just needed that extra boost to help us emotionally get through a day with that many flats.
We finally got to Kelso after meeting a guy who travels about as many miles a day to work and back as Hans and I would do on one of our little adventures. We were in a town when it started to get dark.  Hans wanted so badly to eat pizza so that night we went to a pizza place and both ordered a pizza we in no way finished the pizza but we had a good time and stayed in a little hotel that night. Hans and I hadn't had a shower in our journey yet so we found a cheap hotel room just to be able to get a shower. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. I think I took around three showers in the time that we stayed there. That night I slept so well.

Finally my cookie Idea!

Okay so here are some pictures of my cookie idea I mentioned a while back. It is a cookie banner! YAY! So I used a chopstick to poke the holes and then thread to string the cookies together. I'm sorry the pictures aren't better. In the future I will perhaps get a better picture of the cookie banner. I want to make one for my sister's birthday. At least that is what I am considering. After making the cookies and frosting them if you choose to do so make sure the frosting has time to harden before trying to string things up. Alright enough of my typing here are the pictures:

New Hair??

Ever want to try out a different hair style before taking the leap and getting it cut or dyed? WELL I do fairly often and I found this wonderfully fun way to do so on InStyle. Here are some pictures of me* trying out different do's without actually doing them. I hope you enjoy and are able to try some out on your own. If nothing else it's just fun....

*I didn't take a lot of time to edit the photos and since my hair from the original picture was an updo it sometimes sticks out with the new looks. Oops!

Bike Trip Part III

When we got dropped off it was still day one... this is just day one continued. We were biking along and talking when we noticed this incredible trail! It was nicely paved. Cracks were generally marked. Slopes were gentle up and down. The view was amazing. At the end of the night we were in Tenino WA and found this nice little camp sight. Unfortunately there were no showers so Hans and I went to bed in our tent pretty gross. It was nice to get to rest at last though. We went to bed very happy for a place to sleep and very wishful for a shower. Note: If you do happen to take this trail, learn from my mistake and have your camera out!

The above pictures are at the end of the trail and at out campsite.

Bike Trip Part II

Hans and I woke up nice and early on the morning that we were planning to leave. Unfortunately we had stayed up until like 2am chatting with cousins. Unfortunate because of the time NOT because of the cousins. It was great to see his cousins. One of them actually got engaged recently. I'll have to post on that sometime soon. BACK TO THE SUBJECT THOUGH... Hans and I woke up bright and early and had a super yummi turkey bacon breakfast. Then we rushed down to catch a train that we thought we were running late for. Silly us. In our rush we forgot the back lights to our bikes. We opted not to go back and get them because we thought we were late for a train... Then we got to the station and the train was running late. We sat there for quite some time and took some beginning the adventure pictures... we thoughts we were tired then.

So here are me and my fantastically wonderful husband. Anyways on the train ride down to Tacoma Hans and I met some really neat people. We had planned to spend that time sleeping but obviously that didn't work out. From there getting out of Tacoma was painful! It was SO hot. SO many hills. SO many stop lights. SO MANY BUMPS! Anyways I would night highly recommend going through Tacoma on a bike trip if it is in any way avoidable.
We took so long to get out of Tacoma but once we were finally out I was a pretty happy girl. We biked for what seemed like forever in one direction and then realized that we had hit something on the GPS and had gone about ten miles in the wrong direction. AH! Okay so that might not seem like a lot but try to consider that it takes 20 miles to get going the right direction again. Also we had a HUGE hill that we had to go up because of going the wrong direction. It also meant that we had bike/hiked up one very large unnecessary hill. LAME. I was so exhausted... I kept reminding myself, "You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength." I had so much time for self reflection on this ride. I kept praying and sweating and working my muscles over and over and over again. I almost cried when I realized we'd gone the wrong way. Hans suggested as we went up a steep hill that we try hitch hiking. I don't think either of us thought that anything would come of it but then one really nice looking truck pulled over helped us load our bikes and took us back to where we had gone the wrong direction. WHAT A BLESSING! Praise God! Also, I had really wanted to try hitch hiking someday. I thought it would be a fun thing. Anyways. The guy who picked us up just so happened to be the Senior VP of a store that Hans and I very much like. The guy never went to college he was just a REALLY hard worker. I was so impressed by his story that I heard. He was about to retire but in his life he had worked a farm, named an impressive company, rode bulls, drove race cars, raised some kids that really, really loved him.... I mean that is the kinda thing that you want to be able to say you've done. I so appreciated that man's help. Hans did too. From there we kept riding but I'll have to continue explaining day one in my next post.
There was a lot more going on 

Bike Trip Part I

Okay so first of all let me be clear.... I am NO Lance Armstrong. Hans and I took this trip on mountain bikes which makes things slower (as opposed to a road bike) and on top of that I will pack VERY differently for my next biking adventure. Here is a picture of our stuff from the morning we left Everett...
Second piece of advice: Do your trip with less of a time constraint than Hans and I did ours. We felt crunched for time and then I got a LOT of flat tires... I'll talk more about that in another post. BUT I just thought those two things were worth mentioning more quickly.

Hello Lovelies

SO I promise I have not forgotten about you or my promise to share more about my bike trip. In the next week or so I will try to give some little snippets about the amazing adventure that I was able to take with my handsome hubby. I will also try to share my fun cookie idea if I get the chance to make it first :) It is a fairly simple idea I just want to make sure it works before I get anyone excited.
Hope you are having a beautiful day!

Happy Anniversary Dear Friend!

So Emily and Zach are celebrating their first anniversary yesterday! I AM SO HAPPY FOR THEM!!! I made a post about them a while ago you can get to it here and see their amazing engagement pictures.
Anyways I was not planning to but it was just SO cute that I had to do it. Emily's husband made her a precious video that I can't share with you because this link won't work. I wish I could show you but needless to say I am so excited for Emily and Zach to be able to be back together again!

Leaving on a bike trip... Don't know when I'll be back again.

Hans and I are going to leave on a little bike trip. I am so excited for out adventure. We will be gone a few days and I'll be disconnected from the world so far as internet is concerned. I'm really looking forward to this little adventure and will be blogging it up about the fun once we return! Have a nice weekend lovelies!

Here's where I got the above picture from.

Update

So I think I have been starting to get better about posting more frequently but I have not posted anything with much writing lately. SO Here is an update on my newlywed life and life in general. Recently someone asked me what it was like to be married. They asked me, "Aren't you happy because now you know that Hans will never leave you." I had a hard time answering that because I knew that Hans would never leave me before I agreed to marry him. Hans is amazingly faithful and he is my best friend. I married him for a lot of reasons but not so that he would never leave me. Hans is wonderful and we are never going to leave each other. To respond to them I had a really poor response and said, "Well I'm not worried about him leaving me and I wasn't before but we get to have sex now." I hate that I said this because it implies that I married Hans just to be able to have sex. THAT IS SO NOT THE CASE. Hans is my best friend and even though we don't always get along or like to do the same thing we want to spend the rest of our lives with each other. Being married for the past months and a bit of time has been pretty fun. It's weird getting used to sharing a bed and there are some very goofy moments. I am, truth be told, the most blessed person I've ever met.

i love typography.

Do you love Typography too? I wish that I knew more than I do. I love typography is actually a pretty spiffy link. There are some fun things on the website. Here are some things from ilovetypography.com 

Enjoy.

USA Debt Ceilling

So what does everyone think about everything going on with the debt ceiling right now?
Any ideas about how the government could fix this crazy crisis??

Everyone gets some bad pictures from time to time... Here are two of the president that will hopefully make you laugh in this time of our nations financial Crisis:

O OBAMA.

Happy Sunday Everyone. 

Green Thumb....

Here is the quest book from Hans and my wedding. 

We did a thumbprint tree and I painted the tree and border. IT was all very fun. 

I think it's a fun treasure from our wedding and for me anyways it is more fun than a traditional guest book.

Art for Inspiration: Liam Stevens

Liam Stevens

I am so inspired in my artwork by the amazingly gifted artist Liam Stevens. Here are just a few of his drawings. He also has done some incredible wedding invitations. Here are a few of his drawings that inspire me and a music video that he did ALL the drawing for. The song is "Waiting" by My Robot Friend and it is a beautiful acoustic version of the song. I am a sucker for acoustic music. I think you should def watch all the wonderful artwork in the video but I think looking at his other drawings while listening to the song is nice to. I really don't know much about Liam Stevens but his art fascinates me. 

This is one of my all time favorites. Potentially because of the bikes and the fact that I love biking/bikes.

Still from music video waiting.

You can by prints on Liam Stevens Website. They are not terribly expensive and worthy pieces of artwork to hanging on the wall.