Wedding Day Feelings

The day of my wedding I was very calm. I did not feel nervous or anxious at all. I never felt like crying. I just felt like smiling A LOT!

Kory said when he was waiting to see me for the first time, Alisa told him if I was any calmer, I'd be in a coma. haha That cracks me up! I really was super chill that day though. Like significantly more than usual. This also meant I wasn't feeling rushed for time even though we were supposed to be starting pictures and I was still getting ready and everyone was waiting for me. I mean, I was the bride so no one rushed me, but it did through everything else off schedule. Oops!

Many things did not go as planned that day (another blog post to come) but none of it really upset me or stressed me out. Well, the only thing that slightly upset me was that everyone arrived at the wedding way early and as I walked back into the building to freshen up before the ceremony, I had to walk through all my guests and they were all seeing me and it was so anti-climactic, but I got over it quickly.

I think I smiled the entire ceremony. I remember just being SO happy and calm and present. I felt very present at that moment. Very aware of where I was and who was there and what was happening. I know a lot of brides have said they don't even know what the preacher said because they were too nervous or distracted or excited or something. I can tell you almost everything Ben said because I was listening intently and soaking it up.

I had planned for that day for so long and thought about it many many times. I've been in enough weddings to know the bride always says it goes by way too quickly (it does!) and it's easy to miss the whole day because it's gone in a flash. I was consciously taking it all in and I'm so happy because I really can relive it in my mind and remember so much of it.

The phrase that kept coming to my mind that day was "peace that passes understanding". I kept thinking, I don't know how or why I'm so calm. It must be God. Thank you, God!

I plan to blog in detail about our wedding weekend and cruise and all of those exciting events. It will probably take me a while but I should be able to include professional wedding pictures in those posts, so that will make the waiting worthwhile. Even if you've already seen them all. They're that good!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Change is a great word to describe my life right now. Marriage itself brings a lot of big changes: living together, sharing money, different last name, etc. However, we have quite a few more changes happening in the next couple weeks.

Kory just accepted a new job with a different church. The great part is that the job is in Roseburg, Oregon...which is the city I already work in! That is wonderful news because I can keep my current job AND I don't have to commute anymore. It wasn't terrible-about 25 minutes-but I will be very happy to be able to run home for lunch or to live in a town with a movie theater and Sonic! We are moving to the big city, y'all. From a town of 3,000 to one with 22,000. That is a big deal, mainly because it puts us half an hour closer to Chili's :)

Kory will be the high school youth minister at Redeemer's Fellowship and we are both SO excited about it! I will have to post about the incredible way God brought this opportunity into our lives soon. It is awesome to see how He's been working. The plan is to start that job after the wedding and honeymoon.

So we got Kory's stuff all moved into my apartment yesterday and he is staying with a friend for the month of May to save a month of paying rent. This means we get to move again right when we get back from the honeymoon. We have got a lot of my apt packed up now also so we need to start looking at housing options in Roseburg pretty soon.

Redeemer's is a church of 1,000 people and we currently worship in a church of 130 people...so that will be an adjustment. All of these changes are positive, though, and we're very excited about all of it! It's just sometimes a lot to take all at once.

However, I'm so thankful I don't have to quit my job and look for another one. That makes a huge difference in lowering my stress level. In fact, I really don't feel too stressed out by all of this...I just feel excited and ready for it to all start happening!

The next few weeks are pretty crazy for us. Last Monday night (May 2), we met with the youth ministry volunteers and let them know about this new job and made plans for Kory's transition. Then, Kory was preaching Sunday morning (May 8) and announced it to the church body, so it's officially "out" and we can tell everyone we're moving now. This Wednesday (May 11), we'll talk to the youth group kids about it, so I'm sure that will be kind of hard. We have two more Sundays to attend church at Tri City and then we'll be gone for the wedding. When we return from the honeymoon (June 5), Kory will have one week off and then start his job at Redeemer's and we'll make the move to Roseburg.

We got Kory completely moved out of his apartment because I wanted to come home from the honeymoon to a clean apartment where we were all moved in and settled...silly me. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy! However, God is dumping blessing after blessing on us, so we will not complain. We will just be excited about the changes that are coming our way! :)

Wedding Crushes

So there are a couple weddings I found online that I instantly fell in love with...to the point it became a problem. I  haven't looked at either website in a while, but wanted to share with you all so you could see just the  awesomeness of both these weddings.

The colors are what made me swoon over this first wedding! I'm quite obsessed with yellow and gray these days.

http://rebekahwestover.blogspot.com/2009/08/mallory-josh-mj-wedding.html

I hope my wedding resembles this second one quite a bit. It just looks like it's so laid-back and fun and like everyone is having a great time.


http://ruffledblog.com/missouri-farm-wedding-with-handcrafted-details-and-a-rustic-feel-by-katie-day/
http://ruffledblog.com/missouri-farm-wedding-with-diy-details-by-katie-day/

In less than 6 short weeks, it will be my own wedding we're taking pictures of...hooray!!

Shower Weekend Day 4

Monday I traveled for 16.5 hours and slept for almost all of it! I thought I was finally starting to feel better and was over my sickness. Wrong! My flu turned into a wicked cold which hung around for almost another week! Not cool.

The shower weekend was so fun though and I am so grateful for all the work we got done, memories that were made, and gifts that were given. Speaking of gifts, hauling them 2,000 miles across the country was kind of a chore. Imagine that!

Luckily, my mom and 2nd mom, Diana, spent 3 hours packing our gifts and fitting them into 2 huge suitcases. I brought 100 lbs worth of gifts back and only two were broken. I was quite happy with that! There were only a couple things we wanted to bring back and were unable to, so those will probably be shipped to us.

The cats were in heaven when I got home and unpacked gifts, bubble wrap and tissue paper!

Typing that leads me to think about wedding gifts, which will also have to be shipped to us. Logistically, planning this wedding can sometimes seem like a headache. When the bride and groom are not anywhere near the wedding site or wedding party, it can make things very difficult. I am quite proud to say I don't feel stressed at all these days, even though we've got less than two months to go. There have probably been 2 or 3 days where I had minor freak-outs, but overall, I have just had a lot of fun planning this wedding!

We had our Oregon church shower this Sunday, and it was an afternoon tea at the preacher's wife's tea shop/restaurant, so it was awesome! We'll get our engagement pictures taken in Portland this weekend, so the fun just keeps coming. After that, we need to take a trip to Medford so I can get one of the little diamonds in my ring replaced.

We're also in the process of getting Kory moved out of his apt and into mine, which has to be complete when we leave for the wedding. Otherwise, we'd have to pay another month's rent for his apartment. It will be really nice to come home to a clean, moved-in apartment though and be "settled".

Shower Weekend Day 3

Sunday I was feeling slightly better than the night before...it's amazing what Nyquil and a good night's sleep will do for you! We went to church that morning and then all at lunch at the World Famous La Fonda afterwards.

We went to my parents house for a little bit between lunch and the next shower so we could sort gifts from the night before. We were able to decide which items needed to be returned because they couldn't fit in my suitcase or were too heavy.

Next we headed to my shower from people at my parent's church. Once again, I got a LOT of cool things! However, I spent most of the shower wondering how in the world I would get all of those things back to Oregon, especially the large gifts like a lamp!

The rest of the day was kind of a long blur for me, so I'll skip the details. I did my wedding dress fitting, went to church, ate dinner and watched/tried to help pack my gifts to come back to Oregon. I was feeling really rotten and had a high fever during all of this, so I don't remember a lot of it.

The only thing I planned to do that weekend and didn't get done was a hair trial, but I felt so sick Sunday night I knew I just needed to get in bed. My hair stylist here in Oregon actually did a hair trial for me last week and I watched carefully and took pictures, so I am sure we can recreate it come wedding time.

Shower Weekend Day 2

Saturday was our work day as we spent most of the day working on wedding projects and crafts. When I say "we" worked, I mean my mom and bridesmaids worked while I talked to them, played with Beckham and avoided work in general.

All of the bridesmaids but Julie (who had a baby 1.5 weeks before) got fitted for their b-maid dresses and they looked great! The lady who made them is incredible. We sent her a picture we printed off from David's Bridal's website and she made dresses that are exact replicas...without a pattern...and for 60% less! She's amazing! We'll get Julie fitted a little closer to time for the wedding, but since this lady made 4 dresses in a week, we're not worried at all.

Speaking of Julie and her baby, Grayden, I got to see both of them on Saturday! It was SO wonderful to meet the little guy and get to hold him. I do mean LITTLE...he was only 6 lbs and was precious!

Especially after holding Beckham earlier that day (17 lbs!), Grayden felt light as a feather! I loved getting to see Julie and her brand new baby, brand new house and brand new car. Lots of excitement! What really took me by surprise was the fact that as I went to hug her goodbye, I lost it. I started crying and couldn't get it together.

It just hit me all of a sudden that I live so far away and I won't get to see her baby grow up and just felt sad to be across the country from her! This emotion continued to sneak up on me all night...including during my recipe shower that night. I was also very tired and getting sick by this point, so I think I was just completely wiped out.

My throat was KILLING me during that recipe shower and I knew I was getting the flu. Ugh! Really?? The timing was terrible...but I pressed on! The cool thing about the recipe shower is that people give you a recipe, an ingredient for that recipe, a kitchen utensil and a piece of advice for marriage and for cooking. Unfortunately, you're supposed to read the name of the recipe and the two pieces of advice out loud to everyone at the shower.

It hurt bad enough for me to just talk, but everyone was talking so loudly I was having to shout and my throat hurt so bad I wanted to die. I have never been in that much pain from my throat, but I put on a fake smile and tried to make the best of it. It really was fun to get all those gifts and see friends and family, but my body aches kicked in about this time and I was so emotional, I knew I needed to get to bed soon.

My wonderful b-maids packed all my gifts for me, thankfully. We left the shower to go clean up the room at church we worked in all day. I also got to open our gift cards from our Amarillo gift card shower that was held a few weeks before. We were INCREDIBLY blessed from that shower and got a ton of gift cards! The best part was that they travel easy and we get to pick what we want: win-win!

This is a good time to mention that we have 5 wedding showers, plus a lingerie shower for me! It's overwhelming how many people are loving on us and giving us awesome gifts. Getting married is SO fun! :)

Shower Weekend Day 1

I was so excited to blog about my shower weekend and post lots of pictures from our fun activities, but I got to NM and found I left my camera memory card in OR. I apparently left my brain right beside that memory card as was evidenced many times throughout the weekend.

So, I will still be posting updates about all the fun we had, and I will borrow pictures from other people who took photos for me all weekend. There was a LOT packed into a few days so I will probably take a few posts to write about it all.

Friday morning started with me waking up at 3:45 a.m. to get to the airport so I should have known my exhaustion was imminent. I got into El Paso about 2:00 p.m. and after a few stops in EP, we made our way to the wedding location so I could get a feel for how things would be set up and really just picture everything better. I am SO happy we did this! I feel great about the wedding site and the flow of the ceremony and reception and everything really!

When we finished up at the wedding location, we headed to Artesia to meet my dad and little brother and one of my bridesmaids, Rachel, for dinner. Sadly, we were running way behind schedule and Beckham (Rachel's baby) was already in bed at that time. I got to run in and look at him in his crib and he looked SO cute all swaddled up and sleeping.

While we were finishing up at dinner, 3 of my bridesmaids arrived in town and we got to meet up with them next. We all went to the wedding closet at my parents church which is pretty incredible! There are tablecloths, candles, flowers, vases, and tons of other stuff that you can use for your wedding, for free! :) It's great! It works on a pay it forward system, so you just donate some of your wedding items after your wedding for future brides to use. Here is a picture inside the closet:

Also, I got to try on my wedding dress, which came in THIS in the mail!!

This is what you get when you order your dress online from China. lol Though we didn't realize it was coming from China when we ordered it...  It looks perfect and just like the super expensive one in the store, though, so I'm happy.

I finally got to bed like 1 a.m. on Friday morning after almost 24 hours awake, but it was so great seeing all my friends and catching up with them, so as always...it was totally worth it!

Life is not a Fairytale

I had a realization this weekend about the huge gap between the way I picture my future and reality. This is especially true when it comes to weddings. When I pictured my wedding and even my showers, I thought I would be in great shape, my nails would be beautiful, I would be excited and happy and having the time of my life.

In reality, I was exhausted, I haven't worked out in far too long, my nails are a real mess, I spent most of the weekend sick and I was so miserable at times I wanted nothing more than to be in bed cuddled under warm blankets.

However, I had amazing friends and family who helped me pack gift and do wedding projects and loved on me, even though I clearly had plenty of germs to share. No one noticed my personal appearance was not identical to the brides in my bridal magazines. I hated that I felt bad this weekend, but I have been reminded over and over it would be much worse if it happened wedding weekend. (I will be taking lots of vitamins and medicines prior to wedding weekend now...I think little sleep and pure exhaustion equals sickness for me.)

I still had an incredible weekend and really enjoyed the time I got to spend with friends and family and future family! I see now that God was teaching me an important lesson about how we can set ourselves up for disappointment by ridiculously high expectations. I am learning to be content, whatever the situation. A wise friend told me she calls it choosing joy. Right now, I am still feeling sick and am waiting in the Phoenix airport for my delayed flight, but I choose to be grateful I have time to read my book and write some thank you notes and eat lunch without being rushed. I feel happier already!

Lists Make Me Happy

• I love bullets. I hope other people love them as much as I do.
• I think it's funny how everyone apologizes for not updating their blog often enough. I don't expect anyone else to blog every single day or even every few days, so I assume you don't expect the same of me. I blog when I have something I want to write about. You should do the same. It's very freeing.
• I seem to start every single sentence with I...then again, this is a blog about me, so I guess it makes sense.
• Our first wedding shower is this weekend. Sadly, it's in TX and we're in OR so we can't be there.
• How in the world did people plan weddings before the internet? (You don't need to answer this.)
• Modern Family is seriously the most hilarious show on television right now. I love it!
• We just got a Costco membership and have quickly realized that it is the biggest impulse buy store ever! Of course, impulse buys there can cost you $400!
• I want an iPad 2 so badly. Have you seen that cover? Genius!

Random things on my mind:

I have probably visited www.etsy.com and www.theknot.com 10,000 times in the past month. It's becoming a HUGE obsession..

This recipe for Oreo Balls is taunting me. Has anyone tried these before? They sound very yummy!

In the middle of my second winter in Oregon now...and I still love rain! I think my 23 1/2 years of living in the desert makes me REALLY appreciate how much moisture we get here.

I got a really warm, huge blue down mummy Marmot sleeping bag for Christmas (that was a lot of adjectives at once! probably not grammatically correct...oh well) so now I really want to go camping and try it out. Kory got a new backpack and we both got solar-powered flashlights, so we need to go try out our new gear soon.

Kory and I are attempting to make his grandmother's famous turkey soup tonight and I'm SO excited! It is delicious :)

We got Toy Story 3 and Inception for Christmas gifts...two VERY different movies, but easily my two favorites from 2010.

Youth Group & Julie's Wedding

We had our youth group rummage sale on Saturday and we raised $1650!! Very exciting! There is a group of ladies who worked for weeks to put this together and did an excellent job. Kory and I helped several of the teens paint the youth room upstairs while the rummage sale was going on downstairs. It looks great! I'm very impressed with the teen's work. I'll try to get some pictures up here soon to show off the paint job.

Here are a few more pictures from Julie's wedding:

She got her cake toppers custom-made of her, her husband, their dog and their mini-horse. They were SOO cute! That is his Fireman's number on his helmet and the dress was made to look like hers...such a great buy!

I also thought this was quite entertaining! This is what she did to my hair before she started fixing it for the wedding. That is some serious volume!

Picture Update!

After church in the park

Visiting the Redwoods

Julie's Bridal Party

I revived this plant...literally brought it back from death...very excited about it!

My boy can be sweet sometimes...hand picked roses...not sure where he stole them from though, he won't tell me that much.

100th Post!!

**I wrote this blog yesterday and forgot to post it. I'll try to add pictures of my trips soon!**

Wow, I can't believe I have posted 100 blogs. I will celebrate #100 by telling you about the fantastic week I had hanging out with friends.

I got to hang out with Lynsey on Thursday night when we stayed at her apt before flying to NM early the next morning. It was so great to catch up with her! Laying on a bed, staying up late chatting about girl things is just good for the soul! I was sad to miss hanging out with Anna Kate, but I did see her for a minute and she is SO tall! I really think that girl will be the same height as me when she is 5 years old :)

Brad came to spend his vacation with Kory and I last week and it was SO much fun! We went to see Iron Man 2, visited the Redwoods, celebrated my new job, and went to Portland.

I went to Artesia over the weekend to be in Julie's wedding...although my travel plans were interrupted and at one point, I wasn't sure I was going to make it!

There were thunderstorms in Dallas on Friday and DFW airport was completely closed. We re-routed to Waco, which was also closed, but we were running low on fuel so we had to land immediately in Killeen at the Ft. Hood military base. We spent most of the afternoon in this tiny airport and I ate my lunch out of a vending machine. Thank goodness I had my iPhone to entertain me all day. Many more things went wrong that day, but I did make it to Artesia about 10:30 or so that night. I missed the rehearsal and dinner and lingerie shower, which was REALLY disappointing, but at least I made if for the wedding, which was the most important part. Wedding day was very fun! Julie is the most ridiculous bride I know, but I love her just the same :)

I got home about 7:30 Monday night and a couple hours later, had more friends coming to visit me! Hannah C. and Britni J. stopped by on their Western States road trip and spent the night at my apt last night. It was great to see them and catch up on life! I'm pretty sure it's been 2 years since I've seen Britni--which is crazy! I have got 5 hours of sleep or less 3 of the past 5 nights so I'm completely exhausted. It was wonderful spending so much time with friends/family, but I'm excited about going to my apt tonight and laying on the couch to watch Biggest Loser and living this small town, slow-paced life I'm used to.

Speaking of Biggest Loser, I am beyond excited for next week's Finale! I don't really know what they'll do on tonight's show since the final four is already decided, but I'll love watching it anyway. I missed last week's American Idol, so I'll definitely try to catch it this week. I just really love Casey James so much...I think he'll be a star even if he doesn't win because he'll have so many females in love with him...including Cara D.

Life Update

I can't wait for the May flowers to come because we have certainly seen a LOT of April showers. My Marmot rain jacket was a bit expensive and I remember I had a hard time paying that much for it, but it is absolutely worth every penny. Plus it brings back good memories of time in Ireland.

I have been very pleased with the people who have gone home from American Idol and Biggest Loser the past two weeks. I really love Darus and hope he wins BL! I also like Ashley and Sam and Michael and would be happy for any of them if they won. As far as American Idol goes, I really like Lee and Casey and hope one of them will win it all. I'm afraid Crystal Bowersox will win and I really don't want that.

Next month I get to go home and see friends and family at Julie's wedding!! I'll be in Artesia Friday evening through Monday morning. I am very excited to see Julie and get to hang out with her and then have a day with my parents. Hopefully I'll get to meet sweet baby Dawson that weekend too!

I used to think it was the worst to be at work when it was cloudy and rainy and dark outside because I wanted to take a nap, but I'm also discovering it's REALLY hard to be at work when it's sunny and beautiful outside because I want to be out there and not in this building! So, it turns out that I don't like being at work when there is weather outside :)

We're having a rummage sale for the youth group next month so I'm trying to go through my apartment and see what stuff I can give away. I LOVE the feeling of purging my home of junk! It's an addiction for me...I want to keep finding more stuff to get rid of. haha My mom doesn't share this love of mine, especially when I lived at home with her and would do that and try to get rid of her stuff!

Wedding Fun

I spent last weekend in Midland for Michael and Danielle's wedding! It was such a fun weekend and they had an awesome wedding! They know how to throw quite a party :) Love my rub so much!

All the bridesmaids in our awesome dresses! These are maybe my fav dresses for a wedding ever! (unless I was in your wedding and you are reading this, then yours were my favorite :)

Beautiful bride!!

I don't miss West Texas for this reason...ugh. So brown and ugly. This was what I saw as I looked out the plane window leaving Midland.

I spent the whole plane ride being sad about living so far away from friends and then I saw this outside my window in Portland and I remembered why I love living here!

Paperwork and Pictures

I got my Oregon driver's license and license plates today, so I think that makes me an official Oregonian. I had to take a driving test also, which was a bit harder than I expected. I did pass on the first time though, so I was happy about that.

We had SO much fun with Kory's parents this past weekend. I am so happy they came to visit! We went white-water rafting on Saturday and it was one of the funnest things I have done in a long time! Ben had a tough time staying in the boat and that made for an entertaining day for everybody. haha Everyone but Kory was thrown from the raft at some point, but Ben definitely got beat up the most as he fell out in some really rough rapids. My arms are sore from rowing and my legs are sore from trying to hold onto the side of the raft, but it was definitely worth it.

I had a tough time coming back from Texas last week. It was just difficult for me when I realized I live 1800 miles away from all our friends and family. Some days the distance isn't a big deal, but it was really hard after getting to hang out with everyone at the wedding. After a couple days, I regained my love for Oregon and I am once again very happy to live here! :) It was perfect that Ben and Jackie arrived this past week, however, and it helped me not to feel so homesick anymore.

Here are a few pictures from Rynn's wedding weekend that I finally got uploaded:

Wedding Fun!

I went to Lubbock this past weekend for Jeff and Rynn Day's wedding and oh my word, it was SO fun! It was such a great weekend! I loved getting to hang out with so many friends and see people I hadn't seen in quite a while. Of course, the best part was seeing Rynn and helping with her special day. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress, of course. The decorations were amazing and I pretty much loved everything about the wedding. We danced out of the wedding to Play that Funky Music White Boy and it was hilarious! I feel very attached to Rynn and her relationship because we both starting dating within a month of each other and have followed the exact same patterns of being together/apart for over a year and a half. Each time I was apart from Kory, Rynn was with me. I had the privilege of being present when Jeff proposed to Rynn. She has played a huge role in my relationship with Kory and I also feel quite involved when it comes to her and Jeff.

I was doing really well being so far away from friends and family, but it was really hard to leave them all and come back to Oregon. Of course, when I landed in Portland, the incredible scenery reminded me of how much I love it here! I got to live the college life again for a couple days and I think it was just hard to come back to the real world after that. If only I could hang out with my girlfriends all the time and not have to work and be responsible!

On a different note, Kory and I are both working to be more musical! He is learning to play guitar and I am learning to play piano. Actually, I am playing Kory’s keyboard, but I am learning from a beginner’s piano book. I am quite impressed with myself because I had no idea at all how to read music and I can now play 3 songs after a couple nights of practicing. And yes, Jingle Bells is a real song. Kory is picking up guitar really well and he believes it is because of his extensive practice with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. A man from church gave him the guitar and another guy is teaching him to play. I am very pleased that we are doing something fun and productive with our time.

I am working on getting my pictures from the wedding online and as soon as I do that, I'll post some on here.

Excitement

1. Kory is taking the youth group to a camp next week and I have to stay here to work, so I’m bummed to be missing out on that. I am excited to watch a lot of chick flicks and have some good 'me' time though.

2. I will be traveling to Salem for new employer orientation next Tuesday and I think that will be cool. I’ll be taking the company Taurus! Woohoo!

3. It has been crazy hot for Oregon this past week! It was 107 degrees yesterday!! Now I know some of you TX/NM people are thinking, “That’s nothing! We have that every day.” Well, the problem is that a lot of people don’t have air conditioners so that kind of heat is really dangerous here! Luckily, I have a great air conditioner in my apartment and at work.

4. I am very excited to have our first visitors next month! Kory’s parents will be here in a few weeks and I can’t wait to show them around this beautiful place. The rest of you should start planning your trip here!

5. Another fun thing coming up soon—I’ll be flying back to Lubbock in two and a half weeks for Jeff & Rynn’s wedding. I am pumped to see everyone and have an awesome weekend together!

6. I use too many exclamation marks! I just went back through and took out a ton of them because I realized I use them after almost every sentence. I will try to calm down—I just have a lot to be excited about! :)

Pictures

When I post a picture on my blog, how can I make it where you can click on the picture and enlarge it? It works when I put a picture from the internet on there, but not the pictures from my camera. Does anyone know how to fix that?

Speaking of pictures, here are a few random old pics just for fun:

This was my first time as a bridesmaid back in 2006. Now she is about to have a baby--crazy! I definitely don't feel like we're old enough for that! 

In honor of Mother's Day, here is a picture of my fantastic mom! I had just finished performing Pirates Who Don't Do Anything at my little brother's graduation party at church. He was SO embarrassed by me and I loved it! A lot of people tell me I look just like my mom but I don't really see it.

This was taken in Romania a few years back. I had gone all summer without DP and one of my fellow interns, KT, found one for me. This picture captures the sheer joy I was feeling at that moment!

This is also from Romania. I absolutely adore this kid! His name is Sam and his parents were the mentors for our missionary internship that summer. He and I are coloring on the train in this picture. He was the coolest little guy ever.

I have been going through lots of old pictures lately so I'll continue to post some of the ones I come across that make me smile when I see them.