Anniversary 1.0

Yesterday Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! I took the day off originally to spend with him, but then we realized Ben started his LAST semester at the U yesterday and I ended up not being able to see him until about 6:30pm. We originally said no gifts, but that's my love language and I LOVE giving gifts - so I wanted to do something special where it was kind of like a gift to both of us. I had decided on two things:

#1: 50 States by our 50th Anniversary
The 1st year anniversary's symbol is paper and because I love tradition, I decided to get my creative juices flowing and came up with the first gift idea. I have an itch to travel, and you may remember a post a few weeks ago about my discontent with staying in Utah until we're old and wrinkly and not ever traveling outside of this place - which would be fine, I just had to have that reality smack me in the face. So after much prayer and wrestling, I realized if I just went off and explored without Ben, it would suck. So I got a map and printed pictures and dates of all the places we've been to together, or if we had visited that place many times, the very first time, and pinned them to the map. My goal for this project is to document our travels and record them with pictures and travel to all 50 states before our 50th anniversary. He loved it!

 #2: Love Notes and Prophetic Words Notebook
This second gift came from Beautiful Day and I loved the idea! She did two seperate notebooks for these things and I decided to do just 1. She explains it like so, "The love notes one is great because when we don’t see each other as much as we’d like, we can still connect in a tangible way. We wanted to do a notebook for prophetic words because they are powerful. I don’t want to trust in my awful memory to recall words of wisdom spoken over our marriage five years down the road- I want it in front of me where I can see it." I wrote a long love note on the first page explaining both paper gifts and of course telling Ben how madly in love I am with him still.

I decorated our room with a paper banner I made, and got a bottle of wine (that, by the way, was called "Unity" and bottles in 2011!! Cheese, I know but so awesome!!) as well as a 1-year anniversary world's greatest fudge cake that I added Reese's too. Seriously. Best cake I've ever tasted!

Ben finally came home with beautiful pink roses and had made surprise reservations at a fancy-smancy restaurant, Prime Steak House & Piano Bar, in Park City. He told me that he knew how much I love piano bars so he thought this place would be great and it really was AMAZING. We had the best food we've ever eaten in our lives and I wore my new leopard print dress and some high heels - I went all out, people.

It was such a great time of celebration and we're so thankful to all our friends and family who have been on our team this last year. Thank you, again, to all our friends who stood next to us last year and who have truly taken the role of being in our line, to walk with us while we journey through our marriage and help to guide us through, seriously. We love you and count on you to remind us that this isn't really about us, but about our Great God who has blessed us so much through each other.

DIY Project: State Photo Montage

My very dear friend, Meredith, over at Everything Espey, hates me.
Okay, she doesn't hate me, but she DID move back to Texas leaving me here in Utah without her.
For her birthday my friend McKenzie and I thought she needed a little Utah love so we sent her a Utah care package equipped with Jack Mormon Coffee - The Celestial Blend of course, some yummy fudge, Utah Utes coffee cups, an ADORABLE Utah shaped necklace (not pictures, it had to be sent later - boo) I ordered from Zailove and a photo collage I made out of the shape of Utah. I stalked her Facebook album "Everything Utah" and gathered all the photos of her Utah life. It was super easy and a great way to make an inexpensive gift a little more personalized with a sweet touch.

What you'll need:

• 12in. x 12in. shadow box frame - preferrably one from JoAnn's that you can use mad coupons for. (Mine cost $9)
• Foam board ($3.99)
• Box cutter
• Ruler
• Photos printed on regular copier paper (FREE - if you have a printer)
• Antique matte Modgepodge ($5.99)
• Small to medium paint brush ($1)
• Black acrylic paint ($1.99)
• Fabric of your choice - larger than your photo frame so it covers the whole background ($1.89)
• Adhesive strips ($3.99)

Step 1: Cut out your State using a ruler and box cutter. Thank God it was Utah! Make sure you make it about 2 inches less than your frame size - so for this project about 10in. x10in.

Step 2: Pick out, print and cut the pictures you want to use. I did all black and white images. A good rule for sizing is making the dominate pictures fit about 4 to a sheet, less dominate about 6-8 per sheet.

Step 3: Begin placing your pictures BEFORE you modge podge, outline your pictures and cute to make the fit. 

Step 4: Begin modge podging. Podge podge a generous amount onto your foam board first, then to the back of your picture and stick together. Do this with the entire collage. I also used some of my fabric to add a heart near SLC.

Step 5: Wait about 10-20 minutes for your modge podge to dry then apply a layer of modge podge over the pictures, coating the entire project. It will look like you've just ruined your project, but it will dry clear and with the antique matte modge podge, have a sepia tone to it once it dries.

Step 6: Wait 20-25 minutes for project to dry COMPLETELY. If you rush it and try to pick up the project while it's still drying you'll get finger prints in your modge podge that will pull (like latex) off and it will look bad. Be patient. Once it's dried, you can pick it up and with your sponge dab it into the black paint and dab most off before applying it to your edges. Go around the entire sides and onto the edge. This will hide any uneven edges and black out the foam in the middle. Do this to your liking, as much or as little as you want. Let dry about 10-15 minutes.

Step 7: Size and cut your fabric so that about an inch or two is hanging off the sides of the frame. Most frames come with a cardboard piece that you can use, but you can also cut a 12x12 piece of your foam board and wrap and glue the fabric around it. (I used my modge podge to glue the fabric to the backside.)

Step 8: Place your collage centered in the frame and use 4 adhesive strips to secure it in place.

Step 9: Make it look pretty by giving it a bow and some fun wrapping decor and WA-LA! It's ready to be given!

Happy Birthday, Mere! We miss and love you!

God Cares More About WHO You Are Rather Than WHERE You Are

Summer has been ... crazy, for lack of a better word. 

It's been both energizing and exhausting, both filling and empty.

I've been having this itch for some change recently and feeling like I am stuck in the life I'm living now and that it is always going to be what it is now - but don't get me wrong. I LOVE where God has me and am perfectly content in my physical location and there isn't a thing on this planet that I would want to be doing more than working in ministry and for SMCC. 

But I had this idea that I'd travel around the world, meet people from all over the place and experience hundreds of cultures before I ever touched down at home base.

I thought moving to Utah and marrying the man of my dreams was the beginning of this adventure and it just seems to me that every time I strike up this conversation, Ben has a different view from where he stands and it looks like this:

AGAIN - I LOVE Utah, I love our mission, I love our community and I LOVE the people here, but I just had ... expectations, I guess, that we'd leave for a time and come back and blow bubbles later.

My discontentment was put to the side this last weekend because I was too excited about my trip to California.

I was able to visit my long time friend, Beth, over at The OC Fit Girl, and it was so good to get away and relax. We met a friend at the airport heading out!

My friend Callie came with me and we originally had separate flights, which really sucked and when we got to the airport, I figured we could at least ask if we could be on the same flight (I was flying into Orange County and she was flying into Long Beach and they were both Delta Flights) so we asked and they said YES! Win!

The first day was so recharging. I got up early to take Beth to work so we could use her car and I was able to take my time, enjoy my favorite blogs and sip on my coffee and enjoy some home made almond butter from Rawmazing on Beth's balcony. Poor Callie was sick that whole day and slept in until 1pm! It was good for both of us to just take the day and have the liberty to do nothing.

Once Beth got off work, our weekend got kicked into 5th gear. I was so excited to be visiting Beth because I had just started incorporating raw/organic foods into my lifestyle and knew that she would be one of the best people to be around to encourage me to stay on track. 

What I didn't know was that she had just finished her Look Better Naked Diet and was ready to purge a little so...

On Saturday, Beth's sister-in-law got engaged and they had a family lunch, so Callie and I ventured out to Huntington Beach. This was my stomping ground for a short period of time when I went to Concordia University, but it felt like just yesterday I was there.

Saturday night proved to be great fun and just enough spontaneity to keep me pleased. 

I pierced my nose and Beth and I did a home job on our nails.

Throughout the weekend Beth and I talked a lot about life, marriage, adulthood and how much has changed since we started our husband journals our freshman year of high school. We'd write letters to our future husbands and dream about our lives - our totally impractical, never-gonna-happen lives, and we laughed at our naivety. 

Beth has wanted to move to Utah and join the Utah team for a couple years now, but God has just not made his move yet for them. We talked a lot about being in the here and now and I found myself giving her advice that I really needed to give myself.

"It's so hard being present and effective in a place and community when you want to be somewhere else. Satan wins when we are ineffective and disconnected. I'll be praying for you that God grabs hold of your heart for Orange County while He keeps you here."

My mother-in-law is about the smartest human being next to my father-in-law. She's told her story of God loudly speaking into her heart many times and the point of the story is that God told her,

"I don't care where you are, I care about WHO you are."

It's funny to me how the grass is greener theory can engulf your life. I need to be intentional about holding Utah with an open hand and moving when God says move, but I also need to be intentional about staying when God says stay and not always trying to hear and figure out if maybe I missed the green light.

I learned a while back that there is a lot of gray with God's will. He doesn't have a specific college he wanted me to go to, or a specific major I needed to study and if I messed up or didn't pick the right one my life would be wasted. God will use me anyWHERE I am as long as WHO I am is devoted and connected to Him. 

A Winter Wedding!

Michelle and I weren't supposed to be friends.

I don't think there's another statement that could be so wrong.

Michelle and I met at a leadership conference when we were seniors in high school. We were what I'd call kindred spirits. She's the Korean version of me and I'm the American version of her.

In our years of friendship, I don't think there's another person on this earth who has been able to understand my silent processing, my reasoning as well as my decision making process. One thing is for sure, there isn't another person on this planet who has been as supportive and active in wanting me to succeed and see my crazy, sometimes rather impulsive plans go well. She cheered me on when I said I was moving to Utah and hasn't stopped cheering me on since.

We've both had our share of heartbreaks, and one thing Michelle knows how to do well and to the fullest is love. I can remember after each break-up, tears, fears and insecurities that rose and the same conversation would take place:

"I can't WAIT to see the man God is preparing for you if this guy wasn't him. He is going to make these boys look like jokers. Stick in there and trust your Father. He knows what he's doing by moving this loser out of the way."

and man, was that the truth.

Michelle is getting MARRIED in December to the sweetest, craziest, man who compliments her in every way. I couldn't have DREAMED up a better man for my best friend and am so excited for the years of traveling together, of raising our babies and all that life will bring us whether that's pain, love, joy and heartache - I'm ecstatic to be able to do it with these two crazies.

One of the BEST parts is that these two hotties love each other

and we get to both walk down the isle and before Kelly and Michelle to support and say

"Through thick in thin, we'll always be there."

and that makes my heart happy.

Some wedding details that get me all kinds of crazy excited:

Here's to marriage!