Saturday, August 30, 2008

An amazing date night...

Last night Rich and I got to go out on an awesome date. There is an awesome family in our church who have three teenage girls so they and a couple of their friends organized a night where they invited the children of the staff, elders, and youth leaders to come over and they played games, watched movies, fed them pizza and treats, and even made a little craft. It was the coolest thing ever!! This allowed Rich and I to go out on much-needed date. We went out to eat at Pei Wei, my favorite place ever, and we had the best conversation. Our small group is going through this class together that is called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. We had our first class last week, and we can both say that we are fairly sure that this class has the potential to change our lives and our marriage forever. It is already really testing our commitment to unity, and really communicating with one another. So last night we were able to talk about some of our goals for things that we want to be able to do with our money. We discussed short term and long term goals and were able to list things out, from things as simple as a new mattress for our bed, and vacations we want to take, to saving for a down payment on a house. It was so amazing to talk together about these things and dream together about things we want to do together in the future. This class is already really testing us, and i know will continue to test us on our discipline. Both of us really have issues with discipline over long periods of time, and that is basically the key to the class really working. This isn't a quick fix solution or something that you can just choose a few points here and there and try to implement them. This is a full on, i am committing to dig deep and do the hard thing even when it gets really difficult and i really don't want to do it kind of thing. That is why it has the potential to be so life-changing. So after we ate we went to this walking path that is in Lenexa that goes around a brand new lake, Lake Lenexa. It is a two-mile walking trail that goes through some woods, and looks out on the lake, and it was right at sunset on one of the most gorgeous days ever. We continued just talking about all kinds of things, and it was just the most amazing night ever. One of those nights that you do not want to end.

This next week Rich and I will celebrate our five year anniversary, and it never ceases to amaze me how every year I have fallen more and more in love with him, and how unbelievably blessed i am to have him as my best friend in the whole world. There is really truly no one else i would rather be with to do anything-good or bad, fun or exciting, i want to share it with him. God has done such great things in both of our lives individually and as a couple, and it is humbling and amazing, and i am so excited to see what he has in store for us in the future.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I'M BACK!!!......


.....but who knows for how long! Anyways, i thought that i obviously won't even try to update you with pictures, but instead just give you some recent ones. This week we celebrated Grace's 6th birthday! I just can't get over the fact that she is 6! She is starting to look so grown up! She started 1st grade, and is totally loving it. The day seems so long to me, but she absolutely loves school, and it hasn't even seemed to phase her. So here are some fun photos from her birthday celebrations!