Engaged Couples

April asked me to guest post today, and I was more than glad to help out since I haven't blogged in quite a few months. We're worn out tonight from spending most of the last two days at BCM for our annual Engaged Couples Weekend. This year, we had 7 couples of current or former BCM students who will be getting married within the next year. We went through some different pre-marital counseling topics, including family, conflict, finances, sexuality, and Biblical foundations for marriage with these couples. We also took time to get to know them and let them ask any questions on their mind about marriage.

I love getting the opportunity to share my experiences and the little wisdom I have about marriage with others, especially students. It's encouraging to see these people wrestling with questions about what a God-honoring marriage and life after college looks like. I also love being reminded of the rich Biblical roots of marriage. It also gives April and I a chance to take a fresh look at our marriage and how we are living up to our commitment to each other and to God to die to ourselves every day and serve one another in love. I'm reminded of a verse that was read at our wedding ceremony: "We love because [God] first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

This year, we asked some friends to share some advice and things they wish they'd known when they got married so we could share it with our engaged couples. This was one of the most challenging and encouraging responses to me that we shared:

"I'm not sure anyone is really ready for marriage when it happens. So much about marriage requires dying to self and our culture has glamorized weddings and being married so much, that when the honeymoon is over, people end up disappointed in their spouse. When you think marriage, think dying to self, because that's what it will take to make it work. Before you judge your spouse, take a hard look at how that person has had to die to self to be with you."

Our "graduation" photo

Inspiration

I was talking to a friend today about working out and for some reason it made me really excited! I've been thinking for a while now that I'd like to run another race after Baby U arrives and today's coffee talk may be the final push I needed. I had a ton of fun running this race back in March and the idea of training again actually gets me pumped.

This time I'm thinking a 10 miler. So tonight before dinner I was searching for 10 mile races in Virginia that occur long enough after Baby U arrives that I can actually train for them and not too far away that I lose motivation.

Here's what I came up with:

In Lynchburg on September 24

In Washington DC on October 9

The race course for the Army 10 Miler is through the middle of DC and around all the monuments. I think it would be so cool to run in this but they have a bit of a time restriction. You have to run at least a 15 minute mile, which I think I can handle, but it would really stink to train for so long, get hyped up the day of the race, start running and be told midway through you have to stop. I guess I have a little bit of time to figure it out- it never hurts to dream big though!

Go Hokies!

According to Google Maps we live about 2-2.5 miles from Lane Stadium but tonight for some reason you'd think we lived right next door. I'm not sure if it's the cold air, a night time game , or simply that Hokie fans are LOUD but we can hear it all here at our place. I think I forgot in general how crazy night time games are. Traffic started getting heavy around campus before lunch and tailgating had started long before that! It's fun though to have so much excitement around town and I will be sad when college football is done for the season.

This weekend Nic & I are helping lead an Engaged Couples Weekend (premarital counseling) for 7 engaged couples. It's always one of my favorite parts of the job so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also excited because our weather forecast for Saturday looks like this:

I love the first snowflakes of the season. Hope you're staying warm and enjoying the evening wherever you are too!

DIY Nursery Style

I don't have much time today so I'll leave you with some design ideas I'm thinking for our nursery. I can't seem to find a mobile I like so I'm thinking about creating my own. I like this one:

and it doesn't seem too difficult to make. The only thing I'm unsure of are the flowers, my nursery theme is polka dots, so I'm thinking about using circles instead. Thoughts? Ideas?

When we were in Cincinnati a few weeks ago I bought a bunch of different sized white photo frames and I'm planning on making an asymmetrical arrangement on the "orange" wall of the nursery. I got this idea from a blog I follow called Young House Love. I absolutely love their design ideas and I love that they desire to make things simple and cheap too! The hard thing now is figuring out what to put in those frames.

I'm planning on taking off the entire week of Thanksgiving so I'm hopeful I'll get most of these projects done during that week. Here's to hoping Baby U doesn't come 4 weeks early!

Last Weekend

Before I bring you up to speed on this weekend I've got to cover last weekend. We've had so much going on the past month everything seems to blur together at times- on to the weekend's events though!

Nic & I took advantage of a free Friday night and went on a fun date night filled with Chinese food and Life As We Know It starring Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl. We both figured this movie was pretty timely considering it's about two people who have no knowledge of raising a baby, learning how to. And despite it's D- review from Entertainment Weekly I absolutely loved it, it might be right up there with 27 Dresses for me when it comes to romantic comedies starring Katherine.

After the movie our good friends Jess & Micah got into town for the Duke/VT football game. Micah and Jess are dear friends of ours. Nic & Micah carry special memories from their days of being an RA in Pritchard to embarking on the real world together in Northern VA. It's always so good to catch up with them and no matter when we last saw them (a year ago or 5 days) we can always pick up just where we left off. I'm a terrible photographer and didn't get any pictures of the four of us together but I did manage to snap one of Nic & Micah and the "Titan" his truck. The Titan carries a special place in our hearts- it moved us into our first apartment in Philly and carried our first (and current) living room furniture from IKEA to our house!


Saturday our church hosted a craft fair and I sat at my friend's booth for her most of the day (she had to work). We didn't have tons of people come but it was a lot of fun just being there! That evening we went out for a fun friends in town/Hokie win Mexican dinner.

Sunday afternoon we drove to Roanoke to meet up with some Philly friends, the Drummonds, who are now living in Indonesia. It was so good to see them and here about their work in Indonesia. They're expecting their second little boy any day now so it was fun to hear stories and get advice from their parenting adventures.

Whew......that was a lot. But hey I blogged 2 days in a row and that's saying something!

Mission Impossible

My mission for the month: to blog every day (weekends included). I realize this may seem like a lofty goal given my recent history, but hey you gotta dream big right? I was just telling Nic how I feel like for once I have tons to blog about. So we'll start with today's happenings.

We just got back (like 30 minutes ago) from our first childbirth class. All day I've been a little nervous but I worked up my courage and "put on my big girl pants" as we were driving to the hospital tonight. One of my health care practitioners was actually teaching the class (and will be for the next 3 weeks) so that was reassuring and exciting because Nic had yet to meet her. There are 13 couples in the class and I bet 4 of them are due within a few days of my due date! As the class got started and the teacher was explaining what we'd be covering over the next month I was thinking ok I can do this, this is all good. Anatomy & Physiology was one of my favorite classes in college so I'm totally down with picture diagrams and charts. And it was all good until she put the video in. That's when it started to go down hill. I could feel my palms start to get sweaty and my stomach start to hurt, it was 7th grade sex education happening all over again.

Ok so I may be exaggerating a bit there. But it definitely was my least favorite part of the evening. Overall though I'm way excited to be there (and Nic agrees). It's cool to see and understand how the whole process works and it made me even more excited for Baby U's arrival-less than 2 months to go :). Here's a picture of Nic & I for my 32 weeks belly pic. See you tomorow!

Baby Shower Pictures

As promised here are some pictures from our two fabulous baby showers!

From Cinci:

Presents! See the little push toy with the orange wheels? Turns out that was Nic's favorite toy as a cute little toddler and his aunt gave it to us to have for our own little baby!

Sam & I before the shower got started.


Cute little cookies from the Bon Bonnerie!

Katy and I at the shower. I can not believe she's a junior now!

And I know this isn't a "shower picture" per say but it is a picture of Randy & Sam's cute little new puppy Luci!

And now a few from Danville:
Fun little diaper cake made with nursery colors-Thanks Kristy!

A few of our guests.

Cute little polka dot cake. In case you can't see it that says "Future Lil Hokie."

Opening presents with my childhood friend Ashley right next to me. Our moms have been great friends all of their lives too!

I can't say thank you enough to those of you who came and help put these showers together. Nic and I feel super blessed and love- so thank you!