Traffic

We all hate traffic on the highway, but when your speaking about the internet the more traffic, the better. It means that more people are reading what you are writing and listening to what you have to say. So with the recent increase in traffic at our site due to some links from other people's blog (Thanks!) we'd like to get to know who's reading.

If you'd like just leave your name in the comments with how you heard about us or what you enjoy reading about so we can keep bringing you the entertaining and funny things that happen in our life, we would really appreciate it. If you have a question or a topic you think we should blog about just let us know!

real life reality

So I have now officially completed my first week of work. A while back I posted on what then was my future job and now it has become a reality, which says something with the economy and the hard times the company is going through. Now I guess as everyone reminds me, welcome to real life. My first week went well, I'm getting back into the groove of waking up in the morning, going to work and coming home. The best part of it all though is that now, unlike my previous summers working, I get to come home to an already hard at work wife, cooking supper for us. She's great, isn't she?? She surprised me on Friday and finished painting our living room so now our first floor is painted and ready to put stuff on the wall!

Alexa thought it would be a good idea on Tuesday to take a picture of me on my first day of work, the same way you would take a picture of your kid on the first day of school so here it is, me on my first day of work!
What a dork, but that's why my roommate Andy this year always called me an enginerd, personally I think he was just jealous of my intellectual capability to do large calculations in my head.

new life

Alexa was away today on a shopping trip with her sister and mom... they seem to be doing that a lot lately. This gave me another chance to pick up one of my books that I have been dying to read and when I was reading it I came across this part that really stood out to me that I thought I would share here.
The book is called Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears and in it they are seeking to find the original purpose for the church and help us to return to being faithful to Jesus, and fruitful to culture. The first chapter of the book was entitled What is the Christian Life? and in there Mark says this:

"Tragically, many Christians have lost the understanding of the new life of the Spirit... Rather than living out a joy-filled life flowing from their deepest desire to be like Jesus, they settle for being sinners saved by grace, obligated to do all they can to keep the law of God by duty rather than by delight."

This was particularly challenging for Alexa and I as we are now in a different culture than we have been in for the past three years, almost completely separated from the people who have been there to strengthen and hold us up. But knowing what Mark says in this quote we must live our lives by delighting in the cross and what Christ did for us and to live a life that is spirit-filled and spirit-led, rather than filling another spot in the pews in a weekend service and hoping that is enough.

Take some time and think about this quote for a minute and ask yourself..... Am I living a life that desires to be like Jesus, or am I just doing enough to hope I make it into heaven?

The Photographer...

I have finally gotten around to posting these adorable pictures that were taken by a very special photographer at our wedding. One of our reception photographers was Gabe Sanders. Payton and I thought that it would be fun to see our reception through the eyes of a kid. And let me tell you we sure did.

The Bride and Groom:
My darling Payton and I

Host and Hostess:
Bonnie and Dwight Sanders
(The photographers Grandma and Grandpa)

Cousin and Cousin-in-Law of the Bride:
Jackie and Nick Glasscock
My sister Whitney and the photographer.. Gabe


The very lovely Cooper Sanders with the bride

Mother of the Bride:
Terri

Brother-in-law of the bride:
TJ Bowen
Newly Weds and sister and brother-in-law of the bride:
Whitney and TJ Bowen
Cousin of the bride:
Barry King in his lovely tux t-shirt (who put him up to that by the way? TJ??)
Mother of the bride being harassed by her son-in-law and nephew

I'm guessing this is the photographers drink...
Lemonade per se....
And of course the bathroom shots..
Good thing no one was in there..

Friends of the bride and groom:
Eric and Kim
Grant and Sarah
Megan and Rachel
Gene
Kris and Zach
Andy and Sammie
What appears to be the trash...
And the photographer himself...
Mr. Gabe Sanders



Payton and I would like to thank our young photographer for taking pictures during our reception. It has been fun for us to look back on the special day and reflect on all the things we didn't see. We will forever cherish these lovely and fun pictures. So thank you Gabe! You are a very talented young man.

married life...

I left you with my last post saying that I would be a married man by the next time I posted on the blog and I didn't fail you. Here I am enjoying married life with a wife who has been sick for the past 3 days and a dog that I just picked up from getting neutered.

Alexa came down with a bug on Wednesday which we now believe is to be somewhat like the flu. She has been sleeping most of the days and just plain not feeling well. On Wednesday she slept from 11:30 - 6:30 and then went to bed for the night at 8:30. But with all of this sleeping it has given me a little time to do some work around the house. I replaced our lights in the kitchen and did some yard work on Wednesday. Yesterday Alexa and I did a little moving of stuff out of her parents house.

But with all of this extra time it has allowed me to catch up on some reading and finish some books that I started during the school year. It has also given me a quick crash course in learning how to take care of a sick wife. I never thought last Saturday during the vows that the "in sickness and in health" would be tested so quickly. She would say though that I am doing a good job waiting on her and getting her the things she needs to feel better. I thought I would finish up with a couple pictures of what my life today, a 6 day newlywed looks like.

Here is a picture of me while I am typing this blog. Alexa thought I needed a picture of me on there to make her feel a little better.
Here is Kip after we brought him home from the Vet this morning. He is trying his best to destroy this rubber tree branch by the end of the day. He's about one third done with it in an hour. I was going to put a picture of Alexa up on here laying next to Kip, but she didn't approve of that.

Hopefully soon we can post some pictures from our wedding ceremony and do a post about that, but we are waiting to get some pictures back before we can do that.

FINISHED!!!

Well at 5AM this morning when grades were released it was official, I am now an alumni of Iowa State University. I made it, barely. I had a rough semester with some tough classes that I chose to take even though the professors I had made it a little worse than it had to be. Nonetheless I am now graduated and can move on to the next chapter of my life.


Speaking of the next chapter, the wedding is this Saturday!!! Wow. I have been with Alexa now for over 8 years and we have been dreaming of this day and now it's almost here! We will be spending all morning and afternoon today setting up the church for our reception. It's a little weird to think about but it is in 2 days, but we are pretty excited.

Now the house, we have been slaving away for the past week and have gotten a ton of painting done. This place is taking a huge transformation. It's amazing what a coat of paint will do to a house. We went shopping on Monday and ended up buying a dining room table at Jeff Jones furniture in CR. I would suggest checking it out if you are in need of any furniture. We got it for about 1/2 of what it would have cost at Crate and Barrel which is where it is originally from. We were deal shopping, and we found a great one! We still have lots of boxes to unpack and things to put away but those are probably going to have to wait until after the wedding. Oh well it will give us something to do while we are here for our first week. Here is a quick before and after of our fireplace, kitchen and a picture of our table all set up in our dining room.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

OUR NEW TABLE

If your wondering about Kip, he is growing and getting naughty. Here is a picture of a toy that we bought him on Monday. Needless to say he is loving to skin the toys that we got him. He sits there and tears the hair off the animals with his front teeth, but I can't blame him he is a puppy.


I'm sure the next post that you get from us is going to involve some wedding pictures or stories, so until next time...