My How Things Have Changed

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much my life has changed over the last few years.  I am 24 years old and looking back even three years ago, my life is drastically different now.  It's neither better nor worse, just different.  

I used to be a night owl, staying up until 2 AM on a normal night and not getting up until at least 10.  Now I go to bed at 10.

My Saturday night used to be filled with friends and fun events.  Now, a normal Saturday night consists of dinner with the hubs, pajamas by 8:00, movie on the couch and I typically don't complain about it.

 

I used to have lots of girlfriends and girl's night was a common occurrence, which I sometimes miss.  Now, I cherish the time I have with just my husband and we rarely have company.

I used to be able to eat whatever I want and not have to worry about it.  Now, I am counting calories and painstakingly working out 4 times a week.  I quiver at the thought of summer and bikinis.

 

My only responsibilities were schoolwork and having fun.  Now, I own a house, have a job, have pets, etc.etc.

Even though life is different, life is still beautiful.  Yes, it may not be a wild and crazy weekend, but it's spent with the ones I love.  It may be stressful at times and adulthood is daunting, but it grows you as a person.  The journey is still exciting and what lies ahead we don't always know or expect, but we are always changing.  Embracing the change makes the difference.  Will it be beautiful or will it be unwelcomed?  I choose to welcome it.

 

Music to my Ears: The Civil Wars

For your latest installment of Music to my Ears, I am digging The Civil Wars.  Their haunting melodies and simplistic style are so refreshing.  In a world of autotuned music and meaningless lyrics, The Civil Wars are a breath of fresh air.  Right now, I adore their new collaboration with Taylor Swift Safe and Sound.  I'm finding more and more that I really love folk-ish music.  I just love the pure sound, with no gimmicks, just the music.  So here are a few of my favorites from The Civil Wars.  Enjoy!

Love Week 2012

Every year my church hosts a city-wide event called Love Week.  The goal is to spread out all over and serve our city through a variety of service opportunities.  Love week started in 2010 with a goal of serving 5,000 volunteer hours and we busted that goal by serving over 10,000.  Last year the goal was 30,000 hours and this year the goal was 50,000 hours.  Our church partnered with 93 churches to serve those 50,000 hours.  This year the mayor of Charlotte declared this week officially as Love Week for the city of Charlotte, totally awesome!  Brandon and I had the opportunity to serve in 4 projects over the last week.  Love week is an amazing opportunity to serve others and demonstrate Christ's love through our actions.  It is one of my favorite events that the church hosts. 

Our small group met to make snack packs for A Child's Place.  They support homeless children and give them a snack bag every nigh because they don't know if they will get dinner that night. 

My mom, Brandon, and I also served at Bright Blessings.  They provide birthday parties and birthday presents for homeless students.  They serve students in my school, so it was a great way to serve them who serve us.  They are one of my favorite organizations.  

We also helped process new shoes for Samaritan's Feet and donated clothing items and books for local crisis outreach partners.  Love week is always so fun.  I just hope that I can continue the spirit of generosity every week.

This is Awesome

I just had to share what Brandon got me for Valentine's Day.  Yes it's awesome, my second husband.  Hubert husband to be exact.

True Love is...

Happy Valentine's Day friends.  I hope it is a day filled with true love.  True love is not a puppy dog kind of love, it's a beautiful mess and the journey is full of twists and turns.  Ultimately true love is unconditional and bears the good and the bad.  

True love is not getting upset when my mascara ruins your t-shirt when I cry.  It's not hesitating to take care of me when I am terribly sick (including the snot and everything else gross that comes with it).  True love is telling me I'm beautiful when I don't feel it in the slightest.  It's praying for each other in times of need.  It's arguing and then him making me smile when I'm trying my hardest to be mad.  It's laying in bed at night and just talking in the dark.  True love is realizing your partner's faults and loving him anyways.  It's pulling out your partner's potential in everything they do.  

It's encouragement.  It's joy.  It's frustration.  It's laughter.  It's loving so hard it hurts.  No, it's not perfect, but it's beautiful all the same.  Happy Valentine's Day.

    

Our Love Story

Let's be honest, I've been having some major writer's block lately.  What better way to cure it and still keep this little blog going than a link-up!!  Today I am linking up with Becky at From Mrs. to Mama for a super adorable link-up called What's Your Love Story.  So appropriate since it is almost Valentine's Day!!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

Brandon and I went to middle school together, but didn't start to actually know one another until high school.  We became friends our sophomore year and started dating our senior year, which means we have been a couple for 7 years.

Senior Prom

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}
Brandon and I actually went to middle school together, but we did not start becoming friends until high school.  We sat together in Spanish class and developed a friendship.  During our senior year our two groups of friends started to merge and things took off.  We started flirting and finally he asked me out while sitting in my parent's den.  We went to senior prom together and ended up enrolling in the same college.  Throughout college we continued to date and fell in love.  We knew we wanted to get married and were just waiting to graduate college and become financially stable.  Brandon landed a job as an Engineer  and I got a fellowship to get my Master's in School Counseling.  Brandon proposed to me on September 14, 2009.

 

3. If married, how long have you been married?

We got married August 14, 2010.  It will be a year and a half on Valentine's Day!

 

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 
We got married in the church that I grew up in in our hometown.  It was an average size wedding, not too big, not too small.  It was perfect.  You can see details and a video HERE

 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
I call Brandon "Brando" and he calls me "Wienerschnitzel"

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

     1. I love his sense of humor.  He make me laugh even when I am in the worst of moods.

     2. I love how giving and caring he is.  He can make friends with anyone he meets.

     3. I love how patient he is.  This is one area that we are complete opposites in, but he           definitely balances my lack of patience.

7. Tell us how he proposed?

Brandon asked me to dinner, so we went to McAlister's to pick up some sandwiches. We then went to the nearby lake and ate. After eating, Brandon said he had some gifts for me. He pulled out a series of small boxes. Each one had a letter on top, which made no sense to me at the time. Inside every box was a slip of paper with a word or phrase of something we had done together over the years. With each box he gave me a small gift that was a reminder of that time.  The final box had an "A" on it and said "Prom" inside. He then asked me what my favorite part of prom was and after a few wrong answers I said "How you asked me", which was that he got down on one knee on Valentine's Day. He asked me to stand up and began proposing. I still didn't know what the letter on the boxes meant. We had a running joke that everything I want to do, include get engaged and married, Brandon always says "One Day". I respond "well that will be one great day!". He was proposing and said "You know how I always tell you one day we will get engaged? It's today!" I looked over and the boxes spelled out "It's Today". He asked me to marry him and I said YES!, of course. It was the perfect, sweetest proposal!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Valentine's Day is usually pretty low key for us.  We usually just do flowers and a nice dinner, so I guess he is a combination of the two.
 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Most of the time I am a couch kind of girl, but I do like the occasional romantic evening out.  Either sounds like fun to me!  

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
We have a whole list of things we want to do, but traveling is definitely a dream of ours.  One thing we would love to do is go on a mission trip together.  Hopefully, next summer we will be able to plan one somewhere overseas like Haiti or somewhere in South America.  We love serving together and are growing every day in our faith.  

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
This Valentine's Day we are going to a nice dinner and relaxing.  Nothing too fancy shmancy.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
We typically don't do gifts on Valentine's Day, so I am not asking for anything.  I do know that he got me a small gift, so I guess I should probably get him something small too.  I usually just bake him some sort of treat.  You know food is the way to a man's heart ;)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.
Always hold on to each other.  All around you there may be other people or fast-paced action, but when it is just the two of you the world seems to stand still.  I love this picture because the people in the background are all active but we are embracing the moment. 

Happy Week!

I know I have been quite absent on here lately, but I have been super busy.  I hope you all haven't forgotten me!  The reason for this post is simple.  Happy National School Counseling Week!!  If you know a school counselor please take a minute to give them some encouragement and affirmation.  I am so incredibly blessed to be a school counselor.  I get to build relationships with students that are different than any other adult in the building.  I love being able to serve students and be there in their times of need.  The down side of the job is that sometimes the work we do goes unnoticed, but today I received some affirmation from my students and the teachers I work with.  It is so nice to feel that that the work you do is making a difference.  So, for all the school counselors out there, I appreciate you and am so happy to share this wonderful profession with you!!  You make our world better!

Be a Bucket Filler

 This morning we had a staff meeting.  I mostly dread staff meetings because they long, drawn out, and mostly flub, so I sloughed into ours this morning with similar expectations.  Most of the meeting met those expectations, but at the end of the meeting our principal hesitantly pulled out a children's book to read to us with the intent of boosting morale.  With the expectation of being laughed out of the room, he carefully opened the book and prefaced it by acknowledging the potential of humiliation.  The little book was titled Have You Filled a Bucket Today?.  It talks about how we each walk around with an invisible bucket.  Now, this bucket starts out each day being empty.  The day calls for it to be filled or depleted again.  As we walk around each day we have the opportunity to fill someone's bucket or to be a "bucket dipper".  With love, acts of compassion, kindness, and respect we carefully fill one another's buckets.  With every mean word, dismissal, and careless or unknown act of coldness we become bucket dippers.  As you fill someone else's bucket, you fill your own as well.  

As he finished reading through the book I could feel myself becoming happier.  He concluded the meeting by passing out slips of paper that we can fill out and let someone know how they have filled our bucket.  He also gave us a solo cup to symbolize our buckets.  I am not one for cheesy gimmicks, but this one made my day.  I love the idea of being a bucket filler.  What an elementary concept that adults still do not understand.  With one small action you can add a little bit of happiness to that person's life.  I don't do this nearly as often as I should.  We all become caught up in the spiral of negativity and I find myself complaining more often than showing gratefulness.  I want to be a bucket filler at my job and in my life in general.  So what are you?  Are you a bucket filler or a bucket dipper?  Go be a bucket filler!!