Our Weird Marriage

A little over a year ago Dave and I had our second wedding. It was on the beach and was perfect. You can read about it here, here and here. To celebrate our second wedding I'm sharing some weird / funny things about our marriage.

What really triggered this post happened the other day. I was sitting on the couch and my husband was packing and whistling. He wasn't just whistling to any tune. He was whistling to the Johnny Appleseed Song. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't either until I got married. Dave started singing it one day and I thought he had lost his mind until he taught it to me and now we both sing it. So let's just get to this list...

some weird / funny things we do in our marriage

singing - I know I mentioned Dave whistled the Johnny Appleseed Song but the real truth is sometimes we sing that song out loud, together. If that isn't grand enough sometimes we sing songs before we go to sleep and sometimes they are songs 'in the round'. You know, the kind you grew up singing in church. Think 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords, glory..." Oh my goodness I can't believe I just wrote that out. It's true though. We sing ... in the round. I hope our neighbors don't hear but if they do #weareawesome

food - for starters, I can often out eat Dave with little no shame. #ilovefood! If that isn't bad enough there have been numerous occasions where we go out to eat and the waiter / waitress comes out and this happens: 

waiter: "Sir, here is your steak and baked potato". 

me: "Oh, um ... that's actually mine". 

waiter: weird look followed by "Sorry about that. Here is your steak ma'am and here is your chicken with steamed veggies sir". 

I then eat about 90% of that steak and Dave eats about 10%. 

cookies - Dave has to have milk with his cookies. Me? I have to have water to go along with the 213412 cookies I eat. I don't do milk unless it is in a latte or cereal. I think it's gross. Oh and Dave HAS to have his cookies warm. 

gps - You don't want to be in a car with me when I have to re-route / route a new trip. Me and the gps officially hate each other. I've said a lot of mean things to to that gps and it isn't pretty. 

traffic - Dave feels the same way about traffic as I do the gps, especially construction traffic. 

documentaries - Most newlyweds watch cool movies or actually go to the movies. Well, Dave and I have never been on an official date to the movies together and we watch documentaries at home. We are watching a documentary on Yellowstone as I type this... ha ha! I really do enjoy documentaries. You can learn all about different countries, cultures, foods, wildlife, etc.

animal voices - Dave and I are pro's for giving animals voices. There really should be an award for this because, hands down, we would win! We 'speak' all the time for our cat and dog. We speak for the cows, birds, animals we drive by and we even make up voices for animals we see on the internet. One time I at crossfit someone brought a dog and I started speaking for it in my awesome animal voice ... and that got awkward real fast. Apparently not everyone in the world speaks for animals, but they should. ;)

There you have it - our little list of fun / weird things we do. I honestly think the 'weird' things are what makes marriages fun. I think each relationship has unique things that bring laughter and joy, and that, in and of itself, is a blessing.

What weird / funny things do you do? 

Fujifilm Polaroid Camera Giveaway

One of my favorite things that I discovered and purchased while living abroad in Korea was a Fujifilm Polaroid camera. I absolutely love that little camera. I take it with me on special occasions as well as on special trips. Sure, it is a bit bulky and adds to my luggage but it's worth it. When Dave and I went to Hawaii this past March I took it with us and got some fun little pictures to remember our trip with. 

    

My favorite polaroid pictures were from my beach wedding. The total number of guests at my wedding came up to a total of 24 people - family and my closest friends. My friend Alisha went around and took polaroid pictures of everyone. That picture was then placed in a scrapbook where they wrote a message next to it. They could write a word of encouragement, a verse or whatever they wanted. I love that it was so personal and that their picture is right there. I also really cherish having wisdom on marriage from my parents, siblings and friends. Godly wisdom from those closest to you is just something special that I can't really put into words.

I've also used the camera at special occasions for other people. My friend here in Woodward opened a crossfit gym and I took some pictures with the Polaroid and gave it to her. When I visited my friend in California and met her baby, more polaroids! These little pictures are great for memories, showers, guestbooks and more.

Today I'm teaming up with Felecia, Rachel and Alex to give away a Fujifilim Instax Mini Camera + 1 pack of film (10 pictures) to one lucky winner. The pictures are pretty equivalent to the size of a credit card and are just so much fun. I've been wanting to give away this camera on my blog for a while now and I'm excited one of you readers will get it. The giveaway is open internationally as long as the international winner agrees to pay for shipping. The winner will be verified, etc. etc. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday's Letters . 6

Friday’s Letters

Dear Blog and Blogtember, sorry you got so neglected this week. A major cold and respiratory infection overtook my life and didn’t allow energy for blogging. Dear Work Spouse, your wedding turned out beautiful and you were a gorgeous bride. Welcome to marriage, a life blessing from God. 

Dear Dave, you were the most handsome wedding date ever. Thanks for wearing a suit (your least favorite clothing to wear) for me two times this past weekend. I love hearing you share God’s Word and am thankful for His work in your life. 

Dear American Children, I enjoy working with you at church and I already love you but holy cow you are so different than Asian kids! If you were in Asia you would have some major time out with Justin like this….

Dear Thunderstorm, seeing you roll in was be-a-u-tiful! I’m amazed at the things God creates and allows us to see. 

Dear Isaac, I’ll write more about you on my life update next week but you already wiggled your way into my heart and are like another nephew to me. You cracked me up this week when you got a kick from staring at yourself in the mirror. Dear Weekend, yippee! Hooray! Holler! I’m so looking forward to you. Dave and I will be in Wichita seeing family, my sister and nephew.

Pre-Beach Wedding Festivities

Since my dream wedding happened to be in Florida and my friends and family came so far I decided to celebrate Friday night too. If you know me or have read my blog, you know I love ferris wheels. When Pensacola beach installed a wheel I knew we all had to go.

Photo taken by my brother-in-law

We all met up, took a ride on the wheel and saw some beautiful scenery of the beach and surrounding area.

 After the wheel we ate dinner at The Cactus Flower, a California style Mexican restaurant with some tasty tasty food. It was nice to visit with family and friends over dinner. Alisha and I ate some black beans. 1+1 reunion.

 

After dinner we all hung out at the condo and played board games. Some great games of Jenga were played and we all just visited some more. 

I'll leave you with another beautiful picture of the wheel. 

Stay tuned because Friday I'll be posting part 1 of my wedding =)

Good Gifts

This verse is near and dear to my heart for so many reasons. When I was in Korea and praying about my relationship with Dave and what God had for us, I came across James 1:17. I have read that verse many times but this one time it was if God was saying "Dave is a good and perfect gift from Me". It settled my heart and gave me reassurance that God was leading Dave and I toward marriage.

Not too long after that, our Bible study in Korea studied James through the Beth Moore series, 'Mercy Triumphs'. It was great to read and study that verse again. Not long after that I received a card in Korea from my granny with that same verse in it. Coincidence??? I think not! I hadn't told her about this verse, or anyone really. It was God's way of making sure I remembered His good gift.

At our wedding ceremony Dave and I asked my brother, Luke, and our good friend, Jeremy, to pray over us asking for God to work and bless our marriage. Jeremy prayed and then Luke started praying and guess what verse he incorporated into his prayer??? You guessed it, James 1:17. My brother is one of my heros and closest friends and the fact that God brought that verse to his mind to pray over us was just a reminder of God's love and how He weaves gifts and blessings into our lives, more than we ever deserve.

More than any other gift, the best gift God sent was His Son. James 1:17 reminds me that God sent His Son, to live amongst sinners, to die on the cross for us, and to redeem us. There is no better gift than that!

Wedding #1

March 24, 2013 ... a great spring day to have a wedding ... NOT. We woke up to around 7" of snow on the day of our wedding. So, instead of having a nice outdoor spring wedding in the gazebo we opted for an indoor wedding at Carol's house. I was thankful to have it there as it was very meaningful. The painting above the mantle was one that Carol got from one of her trips to Burma. I loved it because it represented Carol as well as my year abroad teaching Asian kids.  

Our wedding ceremony was simple. My Dad did shared a short sermon, we said our vows, exchanged rings and walaa ... we were married. My friend Melissa came and took pictures for us, she did a great job and here are a few snapshots. 

The ceremony - it is hard to see (top right picture) but when we went to exchange rings Dave gave me a huge big fake pink diamond, which was funny. On the bottom right we were waving to my siblings, their spouses and nephews who attended the wedding via Skype. 

Meet our ring bearer, Static or Callie. She has two names and is the family dog shared by Dave and his sister. She is a great dog and is so well behaved (99% of the time). It was great to have her be a part of the ceremony. 

Meet my new family! They have been very welcoming (they are well behaved 99% of the time too other than the occasional unicorns they give us ... it's a family joke). I'm thankful I married into such a good family and I'm thankful that after the long distance relationship Dave and I had they still welcomed me right in. 

My side of the family : my Dad, Mom, Sister Holly, granny and adopted sister Andrea. I'm so thankful each and every one of them were there. 

I'm not a big lover of snow but this picture on the left is probably my favorite. Cold doesn't describe how I felt in an open back dress but throwing snowballs at Dave was fun! 

His sister helped throw snowballs at him too. 

So there you have it peeps. That's the story of how I married my best friend, the first time.