upgrading our white-walled bedroom

The white walls begged to be covered, albeit only for a few months. After asking friends for ideas, I headed out to Tuesday Morning and found a steal copper-colored satin panels and a curtain rod with a little personality.

With power drill in hand (thank you friends for the wedding gift) and borrowed dill bits from Dan, our new next door neighbor, Scott hung the no-window window covering.

The first morning I woke up and thought I was in a hotel room. For 2.3 seconds.

Thanks, Kimba, for your great blog and the kick-in-the-pants I needed with your DIY day challenge.

 

What’s Really “Amazing”

Scott perused over a document he’d just synced to his phone while I was driving us home from Lincoln. We’d enjoyed a fun appointment with a new friend and now, driving home, Scott had been making calls.

It was getting late, so the calls stopped and his never ending fascination with his phone resumed.

Keys clicked on the Blackjack phone. Tires crunched on the snow-packed roads.

“It’s amazing,” I said with a singsong-newlywed tone, “how we’re together almost 24/7 these days.” (Referring to our working-together jobs.)

“What’s amazing,” he said seconds later, “is that I can read a 33 megabyte file from my phone.”

Silence.

“Wow, I can’t believe you just said that,” I said shocked but not shocked. “You missed a potentially very romantic moment there, Honey.”

I couldn’t play mad; it was too funny.

“Scott, we have to write these down for future generations–things like this and the Halloween candy story.”

I have a feeling that many of our marriage communication foibles like this will involve conversations in moving vehicles.

What funny male v. female stories about communication do you have? We want to hear!

 

Thankful

We just finished rip-roaring card games of Pitch and Presbyterian Poker and are laying on our turkey-stuffed tummies.

We are thankful.

• For a country where we experience freedom in ways that allude much of the world, like India.
• For a wonderful start to our marriage and for the encouragement we’ve received these 7 months.
• To be within an hour’s drive of both sides of our family.
• For God’s provision in our season of raising financial support.
• For lives that have purpose because of God’s grace.

 

Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? (November newsletter)

We’re in a series about different ministries in Campus Crusade. Scott and I have an opportunity to serve these ministries through our roles at the World Headquarters in Orlando, Fla. This month is about FamilyLife.

Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?

The only sound was the whir of our tires on 70th Street.

Scott and I had gone to see Fireproof for our date night on Halloween and now quiet blanketed us in the truck. The movie impressed us—even with a low budget and volunteer actors—with the real issues surrounding marriage. We’d discussed the movie for a bit, but now silence fell as we drove back to my parents’ home.

I’d love to talk more, I thought. We’ve only been married six months. In the movie they’ve been married seven years. I wonder what our marriage will look like at that stage?

I looked over at Scott. He looked deep in thought.

I wonder what’s he’s thinking about. Maybe about the 40-Day Love Dare? Or that scene where Caleb smashed the TV with his bat?

I wish he’d hold my hand, whatever he’s thinking.

“Do you think your dad has leftover Halloween candy?” he suddenly asked, with a staid expression.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Is that what you’ve been thinking about?!?”

Like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar he confessed. “Um. Yeah.”

We both rolled.

Let’s just say we’re still learning about this amazing thing called marriage—and differences between men and women. Six months of marriage has not made us experts, but rather made us very aware of our need for Jesus to be in the center of it all—bliss and conflict and everything in between.

FamilyLife is the marriage and family ministry of Campus Crusade. Recently, they teamed up with the makers of Fireproof to encourage couples to see the movie, then take the 40-day “Love Dare” challenge. (Listen to the FamilyLife radio program.)

Besides the radio ministry, FamilyLife is probably best known for their marriage conferences, called A Weekend to Remember. Scott and I are fans after attending a three-day conference while engaged and becoming friends with the speakers, Dave and Peggy Jones (left). Read these responses from an October conference in New York where the Joneses were on the speaker team.

· “My wife and I have been on the brink of divorce for more than nine years, and this weekend is kind of the life preserver thrown to us from the boat.”

· “It opened my eyes to the kind of marriage I truly desire and realize it is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. I just loved how the whole conference was centered on God and biblical principles! I pray that God will strengthen our marriage as we apply these principles.”

Growth Ideas for You or Friends

• Attend a Weekend to Remember Conference (Friday evening through Sunday noon)

  Omaha: March 15-18 :: Lincoln: March 27-29. Find a conference location near you.

• Start a Home Builder’s Bible Study Near You

  These 4-to-8-week marriage Bible studies tackle relevant topics in marriage like finances, conflict, parenting and remarriage.

• Angie’s Top Picks

  Ok, I’m new at this, but I have to highly recommend these: Love and Respect, For Women Only and The Power of a Praying Wife. Consider buying a copy then passing it on!

 

Celebrations

One Year Since Getting Engaged

Today marks one year since Scott gave me my beautiful ring and asked me to be his wife in Kansas City. I mean, be his wife wherever we live. He posed the question in Kansas City.

Read about how Scott proposed last October 26.

Thought it’d be fun to include a couple of wedding pictures we didn’t put up before.

And We Celebrated 6 Months of Marriage Last Week

Scott planned a really fun 6-month-anniversary-eve for us Saturday, the day before the real deal on the 19th. We ate dinner at The Garden Cafe, a fav of mine I didn’t know was still in Omaha, got pumpkin spice lattes and then strolled on the new walking bridge that connects Omaha and Council Bluffs (see pix below). He even got to be my Soda Hero when my blood sugar went low on the walk home. What a wonderful man I got to marry!

Check out a few photos from the evening…including a surprise we found when we got home!

 

Omaha’s Farmer’s Market

Scott made us his signature breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, then we jumped in the truck (sans shower) and headed to downtown Omaha for the farmer’s market there.

I joked with Scott that, one day, maybe we’ll be that old couple whose bragging rights encompass the fact that we’ve been to a farmer’s market in each state.

Two down. (Florida & Nebraska)

Forty-eight to go.

Oh, plus Guam. Does Guam have a farmer’s market?

We bought the largest zucchini I’ve seen, as well as squash, a big ‘ol green pepper, fresh basal and a bouquet of flowers my husband-of-almost-4-months bought me.

And I’m blanking on what kind of flowers these are. Help me out?

 

Is that it? Mount Kilimanjaro?!!

Scott here.

I made the mistake of turning over last night, which awakened Angie.  “Scott?” she says while shaking my shoulder.  “Do you remember that weird situation we’re in?”  “No,” I said, while looking at the clock that says 2:30am.  She scoffs at me, as if I should know what she’s talking about.  “That guy….we need to get the clothes out of the car.”  I don’t respond.  I’m seriously trying to remember if there is a weird situation we’re in because -

A.  Angie’s mind is always whirling and she has a much better memory than me.

B.  It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m not fully in my right mind either.

She asks me a couple more unusual questions and continues to scoff at me for not knowing the answer.  At this point I know she’s sleep talking/walking…again.  She gets out of bed and pulls out her insulin pump to use the green LCD light to look around the dark room.  “That’s so WEIRD!  It was just right..here.”  She moves to a couple more corners in the room, still saying, “That’s so WEIRD!”  Finally, sobriety enters the room and she asks, “Scott, was I dreaming this?”  I told her yes, it was a dream.  I was shocked she believed me.

The night before was my turn when Angie woke me up after I had fallen asleep for an hour.  I told her, “Why do we have to get pictures?  I don’t understand?”  Then she laughed at me.  I knew for CERTAIN she knew EXACTLY what I was talking about, but the laughing made me so mad I walked out of the room.  Sobriety entered the bathroom I was in and I realized it was probably a dream.  Still, there’s nothing that makes a man angry like his wife laughing her head off at him for what appears to be no reason whatsoever.  It’s more cruel than anything, until I woke up the next morning and thought it was funny too.

The night before that wasn’t as dramatic, but just as unusual.  About 5am Angie said, “Is that it?  Is that Mount Kilimanjaro?”  Well, that was a new one.  Not Mount McKinley, not the Rocky Mountains, not Jesus on the Mount of Olives, but Mount Kilimanjaro.  Even she doesn’t remember where that one came from.  What an active bedroom we have that comes from our nightly dream theater.

 

it’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s beltman

I just stopped crying from laughter.

This is Scott, in mid-sentence, as he was heading out the door to go get me a pop in case I have a low blood sugar in the night.

Now, understand that I am usually grateful that he’s my orange-juice-or-pop hero, making sure his diabetic wife has what she needs. (We realized at 11:37 p.m. that we had neither beverage option.)

But a key part of this story is that Scott majorly threw out his back tonight. After coming home after Jazzercise to find Scott like a moving-like-a-90-year-old man, I went back out to get him a back brace and a bag of ice at Walgreens.

What brought tears of laughter was seeing him walk toward the door, keys and wallet in hand. He was serious. The man who could barely move was going to maneuver and get in our truck and drive to 7-11.

And be my hero.

It was a sight I couldn’t take. I pleaded with him to stop, and even chased him out the door. (Ok, chasing implies a greater speed than was actually happening.) He was serious! I started begging him to stay and let me go.

Just seeing him in that back brace and barefoot sent me into an I-can’t-catch-my-breath laughter.

“It hurts, it hurts!” he bellowed. “Don’t make me laugh because it hurts when I do!”

Then, in a strange twist of events, we suddenly heard 3 gunshots (or so we think). We scurried (yes, this time) inside.

Scott got some water and realized God’s provision–we had a Dr. Pepper inside our fridge that we’d forgotten about. So, I’m provided for. How cool is that?

The superhero and his wife are calling it a night.