Picture Happy

Pictures are worth a thousand words (so if you want the word version scroll down to the last post ;)

The Boy becomes the Fiance

I should be asleep, but I am feeling contemplative, sentimental, and very excited!! This has been a crazy couple days, but some of my favorite ones ever! Christmas today was so special. I love my family so much and being able to spend a day together like today was truly a blessing. Saturday was pretty great as well ;) A lot of people have asked me, "how did he do it?" and because I love the documentation of my blog, I decided to post the story here (for those not following along on Instagram). 

I love a good story. Romantic comedies are the best... And ours is my favorite! Maybe someday I'll tell the story of how unlikely our love story was when we first met. How a weird punk boy met a weird homeschooled girl (who didn't look at boys, talk to boys, or interact with boys in any way) and how they teased and texted and eventually fell in love (with each other's weirdness). But that story is for a different time. Tonight it is the story of how this boy went from being a special man to being a very special man. 

We first chatted at Bubble Island three Novembers ago. He brought me back there on Saturday morning (even though he hates the tea) only to find that it was closed for renovations. Although it was kind of a bummer, we made the most of it and he escaped without having to drink Bubble tea a second time in his life ;) Right next to Bubble Island was a bookstore. We walked by and he saw my head turn and my pace slow. He asked me if I wanted to go in. I knew this was a special day and part of me just wanted to skip ahead to the end. But the other (very large part) wanted to go into that quaint little shop with him and just enjoy the day. He smiled encouragingly and I nodded. The door bell jingled as we entered and I am so glad that we went in after all! It smelled like epic stories and ancient wisdom. On our challenge to find the oldest, we bumped into one that had "1899" printed in the cover! I felt like Belle in the beast's library! It was such a fun way to start the best day ever. 
After the bookstore, he took me down memory lane on campus. Because I always have to go there to pick him up, we have had some crazy adventures on that campus. Sometimes it is fun to think about my parents walking the same trails and making the same discoveries that we are making. Campus is a great place to be! As we talked about some of our favorite things (like Reese Peanut Butter Cups and Pentel RSVP Pens), he pulled them out of his pockets and gave them to me! It was somewhat random, yet so fantastic! Then he told me a silly story about an old myth. He explained the story and contrasted it with the infinite love of God (at which point he pulled out of his pockets the fluffiest, white, infinity scarf of all time!) I was laughing so hard and the imagery and preciousness of the moment. 
Next - in memory of our first (semi-awkward) adventure (modernly called date), we played football in front of his dorm. The air was freezing and eventually he asked if I wanted to do something that didn't hurt my hands in the cold. I walked around the car to discover that he had bubbles!!!! For the next blissful minutes I ran through the bubbles while he blew them across the grass... it was magical :) (I'm basically a three year old at heart). Lastly, he took me to the MSU gardens where I take a lot of photos. We sat on a bench and sang camp songs with his guitar. I love the way he sings and plays music. After two of my favorite camp songs, he asked me if I knew the next one. My eyes were fixed to the strings as he proceeded to play me a song he has written!!! It was perfect. I told myself that I wouldn't cry, but the moment he got down on one knee it became something that was out of my control. I've never been more excited to answer a question in all my life! (Although it did take me a minute to gather myself enough to respond) haha and then the giggles and smiles abounded! (Ohhh and after I sobbed "yes" he slipped the prettiest ring on my finger!) 

The next thing to do was have a party! Xav brought balloons and party poppers for the occasion and we spent some time in the parking lot running around and celebrating. We then called our families to tell them the news. Samantha's response will be forever cherished in my heart! She was screaming congratulations through her tears; I've never heard anything more precious! I am so blessed by these people <3 

And that is how he did it! Turns out, he had saved the list of my favorite things that we swapped when we first started dating and used it as the basis for this day (i.e. bubbles, books, Bubble Island, Reeses, pens, balloons, guitar-singing, meaningful words, etc) SO AMAZING! Hopefully I will get the photos up here soon as well as other stories that come to mind. Sometimes these story telling moods happen late at night and I just go with it (but usually I just go to sleep! *whoopsie*). I hope that you all had a joyous and blessed Christmas, what a gift that we celebrate! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night :)

"I'm Outraged!"

I'm outraged that people say the beginning of this phrase so often.

Just kidding, I'm not really outraged. But listen to the news, listen to people - real people. It is very likely that you will hear one of two phrases.

1) I am outraged that...

2) I'm furious about...

I guess I have become slightly calloused to these phrases. My dad, the ever observant one, brought it to my attention the other day. He asked me why I thought that people are always outraged and angry.

Although I didn't have an answer, I have been much more aware of how often people get upset over assorted things. Just check out the headlines from the last couple days. Take a peek on Facebook if you dare. You'll see links to news articles, personal opinions, people verbally attacking other people because their personal opinions are different. You'll see the anger and ultimately the sin of people pouring out of them.

Things like forests and endangered species have more protection from their outraged supporters than many unborn babies. 

It is incredibly easy to jump on a bandwagon. Speaking from experience, I am quick to judge, slow to listen, and slow to show love a lot of the time. Certain stereotypes and stories can lead me to conclusions and opinions just as fast as anyone else. But there is a problem. I don't see people's hearts. When I look at a person or hear a story, I'm making a judgement based on my opinion and perception. I don't know what is going on in their heart, what God is doing in their life, or what He has planned for them. There is only one ultimate judge. Someday every person will stand in front of Him and have to give an account for every careless word, hate-filled passion, and every sin. Yet I can scroll through my newsfeed judging people who are posting their judgements of other people. Where does it stop? 

This post isn't at all meant to be a judgment... cause I'm right there with everyone else. Instead, I hope it can be a call to action. For me, I want to be more about forgiveness, love and showing grace than jumping to conclusions, gossiping or judging. Let's be a people that shows the love of Christ in obvious ways! Let's be careful of what comes out of our mouths (and out of our fingers on social media)... Matthew 12:34 "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Let's stand for what is right, but let's stand in humility and love. Let's be more concerned about living as ambassadors of Christ than as ambassadors of self.

And let's be outraged at sin (especially the sin in our own lives) without condemning people or putting ourselves above others. 

Not According to {my} Plan

Sometimes I feel like I write the same blog post over and over again... I guess that goes to show that God is a patient teacher and that I haven't fully grasped the concept of giving my plans to Him. About a month ago I was taught once again that my plans are not my own.

It was a Tuesday, and I was babysitting Luke when I started to feel like my acid reflux was getting bad. I left his house mid-afternoon and by then the pain was getting worse. After a rough drive home, I collapsed on the living room couch where I stayed for about 8 hours before consenting to go to the hospital. I really hate hospitals. I also really hate pain. But the hate for the pain ended up winning. I wasn't sure what was causing it, but I had a tiny concern that it was my appendix. Based on watching Ben go through an appendicitis attack a while back, my mom was thinking the same thing. 

We got to the hospital a little after midnight and, had it not been for a Brian Regan moment, I might have freaked out. My mom dropped me off near the entrance to go find parking. . . yeah. "Go on in, tell em you're shot"/"I'll just go up a couple levels". The humor was good for me. Next was to see if the emergency room was even open. The lights were all off and no one was inside when we walked in. Way at the back of the room we saw a woman sitting at a desk and thankfully discovered that they were not busy at all!

After the worst was over (the awful needle), they tried to figure out what was going on. I had a low grade fever, but in the CT scan they couldn't see anything wrong, in fact, they couldn't even see my appendix. The next morning at about 10am, we met an assistant surgeon man who did some evaluations and decided that we should consider surgery anyway. 

I was so blessed by friends who were texting me and praying for me throughout the morning. The second surgeon man agreed with the first, and he too thought that it was likely my appendix even thought the scan didn't show it. I really didn't want to have surgery for no reason, and I kept asking how long he thought it would take to recover. He estimated about a week before I was back up and running and three weeks before I could life heavy things. Mentally I calculated how many days I had before my planned trip with Xavier... 5 days. Basically equivalent to one week. I figured that I would be totally fine by then, after all how much can a tiny appendix hurt once it is gone? 

Even big girls need their stuffed animals! 

I really didn't take everything into consideration and I quickly realized after I woke up from surgery that it was going to take me longer than I thought to bounce right back. Thankfully it was my appendix that had been infected, but now I had a different pain! I was still holding out hope that the trip would happen after all... but I was a little more doubtful. Between pain, pain meds, and the constant ice pack, I was pretty grounded at home. 

Balloons and flowers! Some of my favorite things! As the week progressed, it got closer to Saturday (when Xavier was coming back from Camp Barakel) and closer to Monday (when we were planning on doing our second east-west/sunrise-sunset Michigan trip). Xav's sister, Matilda, came to hang out with me on Saturday and I enjoyed the mental distraction. We watched girly movies, painted our nails, did hair, and it was so nice to catch up and chat.

But then Sunday came and the next day was the trip day and I still couldn't walk without my ice pack. I shed a few tears as I told Xavier that our plan wasn't going to work. I knew that we would both be going back to school soon and that there wasn't another set of days that worked. He said it didn't mind and offered to come just hang out with me for a few days... 

Needless to say, it was good medicine! I managed to adventure out into the world and we traveled to Walmart (living on the edge). He also took me to see Guardians of the Galaxy (we are clearly very adventurous people). Then he went back home for a few short days before college move in.

Way back when, I heard of... or somehow got the idea of seeing the sunrise on the east side of Michigan as it rose over Lake Huron and then traveling west (in the same day) to watch it set over lake Michigan. Last year Xavier and I did just that and it was quite the adventure. All year we had been talking about how much fun it would be to do it again. After it got cancelled, I just couldn't let it go away completely. We talked about it and the logistics and finally decided on just a one day trip to Ludington and Grand Haven. That way we wouldn't have to get up at 3am and do as much driving. There was one day that worked for the schedules... and it was supposed to rain and storm all day. 

We decided to go for it anyway and see what happened.

We saw the sunrise while driving and it was just as beautiful and exciting! 

(Xavier is getting to be a pretty good photographer :} )

We ended up in Ludington and followed the signs until we reached the sand dunes. How can you not run up and down sand dunes before dipping your feet in the water? I ended up stowing my camera before too long; I just had to capture a little bit of the view first.

There is no better sea.

 We walked along this "beach" for a while getting thoroughly wet along the way. Xavier eventually gave in and went for a swim while I watched him wave jump. I briefly chatted with a friendly grandma who was walking the beach and warning people of the rip tides. I assured her that Xav knew what he was doing but waved him back to shore once she left just to make sure.

Traditions are fun little fellows... as much as I tease my mom for all of hers, I can't help but begin to understand the fun in them. Last year we played putt putt golf at this quaint little place in Ludington, where Xav scored a hole in one and won a free round. We managed to keep it all year and brought with us to use on this trip! It looked like it was going to rain, but we made it through the course and stayed dry!

Picnics are the best! So much summer :)

Tie the trash bag to the keys so it doesn't fly away... he's basically a genius.

The wind was picking up and the sky was getting darker, but we decided to walk out to the lighthouse anyway. Waves kept splashing over the pier and I had to keep protecting my camera from the spray... but it was so fun!

A funny thing about travel is seeing people you don't expect to see. Xavier ran into some of his engineers from the summer and they chatted for a bit while dodging the waves that kept crashing on the lighthouse. 

 Through all this, it never actually rained on us! What a marvelous gift.

After thoroughly enjoying Ludginton, we ventured to Grand Haven for the sunset. The following pictures sum up the day pretty well. Silliness, challenging selfless with a heavy camera, breathtaking clouds and watching a perfectly gorgeous sunset from the same spot as last year.

PC : the boy

If (nearly) perfect days exist is this crazy messed up world, then this surely was one of them. It far surpassed my own plan for how and when the day would happen and I am so thankful for God's grace in the daily unexpected. 

A Summer Night

"The simplest things are most often the truest..." - unknown

Last night we ventured out to the Demerly's farm for a quiet night of sunshine and animals. It was the first time I had gone anywhere in a week and it was so peaceful to just walk (slowly) around their farm with my camera in hand. These pictures are worth more than the words I could say about them so I'll just let this post be picture-heavy.