Bridal thoughts

We just finished watching Bride Wars and I have a thought about weddings today.
We lose focus the minute we become engaged, it becomes all about the wedding and not about the marriage anymore.
There was a quote in the movie "You will be spending more time coming up with your maid of honor than your groom". How sad is that?
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I guess that really hit home when I looked at a friend's facebook profile to see if she had posted any wedding/honeymoon photos already. My husband was the first to point out that little miss weddings was all about the wedding but not the groom. We all knew that she had been planning her special day since she was little as we all have but my observation is that she just slid in the first boy who came along. She updated her status to let us all know how happy she was to be getting married but poor groomie never was mentioned. Now that she had returned from her honeymoon she has updated the fact that she is married and her profile picture to one of her and a bridesmaid but clues of a groom have yet to be seen. She hasn't updated her name (I know not all people change their name) or posted any photos of him.
Have you seen friends do this as well?
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I am so sorry if I offended any of you with this post.
The information I spoke of was also gathered from conversations with some of her bridesmaids. I know that a relationship can only be judged by the people in it and not by what is posted to facebook. I also remember being asked what I was doing to prepare for our marriage and not just plan the wedding, there really is just so much to plan with a wedding.

crushing news

I received some exciting but still soul crushing news this past Friday, my cousin who just got married this past November is already two months pregnant.
I am extremely excited for her but still very shocked. She just went to the doctor and they said that she would have a hard time getting pregnant and that to do so she would need medical help. She was also having trouble with her period that month so the doctor gave her some medicine to help with it. Well that combined with no more birth control since getting pregnant will be very hard results in a pregnancy.
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I guess that I share this with you because so many of you know exactly how crushing this news is for me. I have another cousin who is due the exact same month that we would be due if it weren't for my miscarriage.
I do take peace though in the fact that God's timing is perfect and that he has a perfect plan for us.

My finds

I promised all of you that I would show you my finds from Forever 21 yesterday. I got a ton of comments about how much you love the accessories there, I had pick up a few for myself.
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The first ring I found and fell in love with but they only had a size 6. I have even looked online but still only a size 6. If you find one in a size 7, 8 or 9 will you buy it for me? I will pay you back plus shipping. The ring was only $5 but it is so cute. It looks like something you would find in your Grandma's jewelry box or at a thrift store and never want to take off!
(Trust me this picture does it no justice, it is 100 times cuter in person.)

I did pick up another ring last minute at the cash register while I was checking out. It was also only $5 and it is super cute and sparkly. It once again is better in person, my stones are a little different colors as well.

Now on to my big item...

Love them or hate them they are all the rage this summer. I am excited to be able to wear them with my skirts and have the outfit look totally different just by switching up my shoes. These are the shoes I feel in love with last week and have truly been thinking about everyday since.
Tell me what you think of this trend.
I like it obviously so don't worry about hurting my feelings.

Forever 21

I am going to make a trip to forever 21 tomorrow and hopefully find a few pieces that will really transform my skirts and dresses. Thanks for all of your advice today!
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Most of my skirts I found at Forever 21 five summers ago before they were all the rage. I just fell in love with them and I am so glad that I stocked up. I was just looking at the website and they had 0 skirts that were cotton and floral or even summery at all.
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I was recently in there with my husband and found the best strapless shirt. It reminded me of one that J Crew does every summer. It features a fitted bust and then flairs out a little bit, the fabric was a linen in multiple great colors. I paid quite a bit a few summers ago for the J Crew one and now they are way to big to even think about wearing. If I pick one up I will post a photo for all of you. I also ran into another location last week and fell in love with a pair of gladiator sandals that I just had to have but they didn't have my size. They were ones that looked like Neiman's would sell for $200. I have been looking for them online and at other locations but haven't had any luck.
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What is your favorite item to pick up at Forever 21?

Skirts and Dresses

The weather here in Denver has been amazing the past 3 days!
To celebrate I pulled out all of my summer dresses and skirts! I can't tell you what a boost my wardrobe gets when the weather gets nice.
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I want to know from all of you, what do you wear with your cotton skirts?
Most are knee length or a little shorter and most are white or have a print on a white background. I want something fresh to do with them this year since this will be the 5th summer I have worn some of them.
Also do you girls wear skirts like these or sun dresses to the office?
How do you make them office appropriate?
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On another note, I finally heard about the job interview, a month later. Click here for more background if you don't remember. I got an e-mail yesterday saying they were going to take a break from the hiring process for now and needed talk to their accountant to make sure they can afford the position but that I was still a front runner for the job. Good news and bad all wrapped into one.

Columbine

I have been without internet all day so this post may seem a little late to most of you.
I can't believe that it has already been 10 years since Columbine.
I can distinctly remember April 20th, 1999.
Every anniversary I think about what a beautiful day it was, walking to lunch and hearing others talk about their pot smoking plans for the day. I was a little too innocent to know as a freshman that it was a day associated with pot but I remember hearing so much about it at lunch. I was just so excited that my mother and I had tickets to my favorite play that evening, Les Miserables. My next class was a science lab where on that day we were using one of the computer labs. I can even remember exactly where I was sitting when our principle came across the intercom and announced that there had been a shooting just a few miles away at one of our fellow Littleton schools.
I had the next period off and went home to watch the news in horror as we watched the tragic events unfold that day. I also vividly remember a few years prior to Columbine after the first school shooting, thinking that something like that would never happen in Littleton.
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That day has forever shaped me as I know it has shaped our entire country. It will however be more real in my everyday life than any other world wide tragedy ever has. I watched the news today and relived the pain that our community is still recovering from and it brings tears to my eyes.
I also watch the current freshman class just a short 10 years later and the pain and confusion they bleed with all of their being. They are lost and confused, it use to be just a small few kids that you could picture doing something so horrific but now it is a massive group of kids. They are trying to find themselves and are mad at the world. Remember when we were in high school and cutting became an issue? You would read about it in a magazine or hear about on 7th Heaven but couldn't imagine anyone actually doing. The trend is on the rise and it is as common as drug use, I would say that every high school student now days knows someone who does or has self-injured themselves. It is just a picture of how broken and hurt today's youth are.
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I tell you this not to scare you but to keep them in your prayers. I assume this is a trend all across our country but Littleton needs your prayers again. I know that I asked you for prayers last month here and I can tell what a difference that they have made! We seem to have less trouble each week at Young Life and I thank all of you for your prayers.
Let's all take a minute to pray for all the high school kids across our nation.

Is it really April?

It's funny that I mentioned in my last post that Colorado weather is pretty unpredictable.
We have had pretty much nonstop snow for the past 48 hours.
I took a photo of the snow pretty late last night and then another earlier this afternoon...

Can you tell how much more snow fell?
It is super wet and will really make everything green.
There is a saying in Colorado that if you don't like the weather wait five minutes. This is our day by day forecast for this week even though we just had a pretty major blizzard,
sunny all week with highs of
56 for Sunday
67 for Monday
73 for Tuesday
75 for Wednesday
76 for Thursday
Yes, shorts weather in just a few short days! My guess is that all of the snow will be melted tomorrow by the time the sun sets.
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It couldn't have been better timing though for me because I have been completely under the weather for two full days now. Nothing is worse than being sick on a beautiful spring day. I have gone through an entire box of tissues and neosprorin is my new best friend! Next time your nose is all red from blowing it all day pull it out, it really helps!

Easter

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I dropped my computer and really messed something up. It has been scanning for problems for a few days now, not really sure if it is ever going to run again so for now I will have to use my husband's desktop. I wanted to share with you our Easter tradition and the reason it has been my favorite day of the year since I was little.
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Every year we have an outdoor service at Fiddler's Green Amphitheater (now named Coors Amphitheater). The only problem with that is that it is April in Colorado and very unpredictable. The weather some years is absolutely beautiful but other years it has snowed. It isn't as simple as moving the service inside though because it takes a week to set up for the service. This year the high was in the 50s and raining. I know that lots of people stayed at home this year to avoid the nasty weather. I think that was part of what made it amazing though. It wasn't about wearing your pretty Easter dress anymore or showing off, it was truly about worshiping, celebrating and being together!
My husband and I meet up with some of my Young Life girls and sat with them and their families, there were over 30 of us all together. It was so great to be able to be able to see them and spend time with them.

The Young Life girls

This is a picture I took of the view behind where we were sitting. On a nice day you can sit on the grassy hill at the back. It is normally filled with families and little kids running around.

The stage and lots of umbrellas and rain jackets.
8,000 people still showed up!
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I hope that you also had a great Easter!

getting worse

I thought I would share with you a picture of my black eye...

It has gotten a little worse everyday. Hopefully it will start to improve soon. I am a person who is rarely without a bruise somewhere and they normally take forever to go away. My brother brought me some homeopathic medicine yesterday that will hopefully help it heal faster.

Now that it has gotten worse I assume that everyone I come into contact with will notice it. I am conflicted on whether to just act normal or tell the story of how it happened.

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When you see a married woman with a black eye would you assume her husband beats her or what do you think? Should I tell people what happened?

such a blessing

My husband is reading Redeeming Love!!

This is even a bigger deal because I can't remember the last book the man read.

Sex and black eyes

If your wondering how the two topics in my title relate they don't except that I am going to talk about both in this post!

The past two weeks at Young Life we have been talking about sex and dating. Always a fun topic with 150, 14 to 18 year old high school students! Last week our head leader spoke about God's plan for sex and how he intended it to be perfect in marriage. He did an amazing job! At the end of that club we asked the kids to fill out questions they had about sex or dating. We went through the questions and answered some of them tonight as a sex panel that most of the leaders were a part of.

We started by answering the first part of the questions for the entire group then separated the boys from the girls to answer the touchier questions. My question to hit on was telling the boys what it does to girls when guys look at pornography. It was a little interesting for both my husband and I when I realized my 16 year old boy cousin was in the crowd.

I have to tell you the Lord was there tonight! We were all nervous and not 100% sure of how to convey clearly what we knew to be truth but the Lord spoke through everyone of us tonight.

There were lots of deeper one on one conversations that happened after club and I am guessing they will continue for the next few days!

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Next topic

I currently have a black eye...

Terrible picture. The black eye isn't terrible but still a black eye. Only a few people actually noticed it tonight but I am guessing it will only get worse before it gets better. I spent the day with a friend today and by the time I left her house it had gotten 4 times worse then when I had left that morning. I am guessing it will be looking it's best on Easter! At least we have church outside so I am can rock my shades, ironic because they were part of the cause.

I am guessing you are wondering how I got my black eye...

My husband and I were playing lacrosse at the park yesterday and the ball came at me, bounced off my stick and hit my sunglasses. I am shocked it didn't break them. I can't imagine how bad my eye would look if I didn't have them on. Have you ever felt a lacrosse ball? They are hard rubber and heavy.

wanted

I am on a mission to find a replacement for this beloved top...

(the bottom isn't laying right in this picture)

Even though I wore it on my wedding day I tossed it when it came out of the washer ripped.

I just love a crisp white shirt with great details!

Wrong size

Yesterday I finally got around to putting clean sheets on our bed and putting on our new duvet cover. We have a queen sized bed with a king duvet on it so that we aren't always stealing the covers from each other. The queen/full size just always seems so small to me on a queen. I soon realized though that the new king size duvet cover is a full foot too big for our duvet. I was really excited to get a new one because the last one I purchased two years ago from Anthropologie never really fit perfect. I really hate when the duvet gets all messed up in the cover, I even have tabs I put on the corners to help keep it in place. I returned it today for the queen sized cover even though it will be 2" too small. They were once again out of stock in the store so it will be coming in the next few days. They also exchanged one of our bowls from our wedding china that had developed a large crack mysteriously. I love shopping at places with great customer service! They exchanged it no problem even though it was a wedding present from almost three years ago.

Eli

I took these photos today of Eli on my iPhone. I am always shocked that it takes such good photos.

This little girl has my hubby wrapped right around her little finger.