Wedding Cards, thoughts

I've spent a good portion of my day so far cleaning up around the apartment. This place has managed to make a disaster of itself while I was busy with my last couple weeks of school. There's been two boxes of wedding cards in our living room under our coffee table. I decided that since I have since finished writing my thank you notes, I decided to make the two boxes, one. I decided to read through the cards again because it's just a lot of fun. I was reminded how blessed Sam and  I are to have such wonderful and loving family and friends. There were also two cards that jumped out at me. One, being a fun card that I thought was just really unique.

 

See? Completely adorable!

The second card is filled with beautiful words. Something that every husband and wife should live by. Here's what it says:

How to Make A Beautiful Life Together

Reflections on Marriage For the Bride and Groom

Let love be your shelter.

The world is noisy and confusing at times,

so make a home that is a haven, 

a peaceful place where you can listen to your hearts and savor

the comfortable closeness you share.

No matter how busy your days may be,

make time for yourselves.

Hold hands. Unwind. Surprise each other.

Find little chances every day

to show you're grateful to be partners,

to be friends, to be married.

Life is not perfect.

You will make mistakes, 

but each time you meet life's challenges together, 

you will grow wiser, stronger,

and surer of your love.

Cherish your yesterdays.

They are irreplaceable souvenirs

of your journey through life.

Make memories

that will bring smiles and sighs

whenever you look back.

(Look back often!)

Look forward, too.

Dream together. Plan together. 

Make promises to keep.

Believe in your tomorrows,

because tomorrows are what forever is made of.

To make love last, 

put each other first.

That is the way to make a beautiful life together,

and the kind of life you deserve so much.

These are truly encouraging and beautiful words. I don't know much about marriage, but I know that this is how I want ours to be.

The coming year

I never usually make resolutions. I always view them as promises you make, but end up breaking. Just never really understood them. There's the classics: lose weight, read my Bible more, less sweets, learn something new, spend more time with my family, or just read more in general. Those would be great things, if people actually stuck to them.

This year, I'm going to actually make some. I'm no longer in school so I would like to make some goals for myself, even if they aren't super significant. And in a year, I'm going to come back to this post and see how well I stuck to them. Here's my resolution list as it stands right now:

1. A friend of mine posted a link to the 365 project website. I thought this would be something really fun to do, especially since I already love taking pictures. I plan to take a picture a day, of anything really, whether it's with a camera or just with my phone. I'll probably post it on my blog and write a little something about the picture, probably why I took it and explain what it is. If you're interested, you should join me.

2. Now that I'm not in school anymore, I want to read more. I won't have any studying or mandatory readings for any of my classes, so reading for pleasure will be fun. I'll probably just start with the goal of reading one book a month and see where it goes. If I read more, then great, but by the end of the year I want to have read 12 books. I know some of the books I would like to read: All the Dexter books, the rest of my Nicholas Sparks collection, Almost Moon by Alice Sebold and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. Adding these books all together, it's more than 12, but if you have any suggestions then please let me know! I'd love to hear them.

3. I follow this blog, The Generous Wife. Sometimes it has really useful information, and sometimes not. But she posted something a few days ago that I thought was a wonderful idea. Have you seen these?

What you do is every time you think of a blessing, or something good happens, or maybe even something bad that happens to you, but you see it as a blessing write it down then put it in the jar. At the end of the year, open the jar up and read all of them inside. I think would be a lot of fun and remind you of all the great things that happened to you throughout the year. This is something that I plan to do (hopefully Sam will join me!). I encourage you to do it also.

And on a side note, I plan to write in my blog more often. Not a resolution because I know it'll happen because it's already started and I've only been out of school for one day.

Share your resolutions!
Have a blessed weekend!

My adverturous weekend before Finals week!

It started Friday night, and we were off to Porterville for the night. We stayed there, visited a little with the families, then we were off to Palmdale.

Goal: Christopher Bradney and Corinne Martinez' wedding!

An army of windmills in the Mojave.

Desert!

We saw snnooowwww!! Well, on the mountain tops, but still.

We get to Palmdale around 1pm or so. We hangout at the biggest Wal*Mart I have ever seen and stop by Pier 1. Then we go to my grandma and aunt's house. We were spending the night there then we would go to Redlands. Anyway, we get there and leave right away for a Music of Christmas show at my aunt's old church. It was fun. There was a ton of good music and pretty lights. We then went to meet my Aunt Shannon and Uncle Ran for dinner at Johnny Carinos. Amazing italian food! If you haven't eat there, you should. And get the nachos as an appetizer. Trust me, I know what you're thinking.. Nachos? Italian? But really, they're amazing. It was so wonderful to hang out with and see family.

We went back to the house and just hung out and talked. My grandma showed me old pictures. I love old pictures! There was one of me and my dad that I wish I would have borrowed to make a copy of. I was asleep on him while he was asleep. I love it! :)

The next morning we woke up to a wonderful breakfast of coffee, bacon and Cinnabon cinnamon rolls! So yummy. We actually left pretty late, but made it to the wedding early!

Eureka!Burger. Remember this post?

Well, the wedding was at the Chapel in University of Redlands. It was beautiful. Here are some of the highlights:

She surprised him with a song! It was beautiful.

"Yay! We're married." -- You know that's what they were thinking.

Their wedding was beautiful! I loved that it was Christmas-themed! Perfect. Once the wedding was over, we had some time before we headed over to The Mitten Building for the reception. In the meantime, Sam helped me go over some stuff in Watchmen for my final on Monday. It was a great help to me!

So we eventually moseyed on over to the reception where we were seated at a table alone. Well, we were seated with two friends who were unfortunately unable to attend because of car issues and the photographers. The photographers were so nice and I wish we got to talk to them more. Some highlights from the reception:

Groom's cake!

The wedding canole, of course.

I love Corinne's face in this picture! Gettin' her dance on!

It was so much fun to go and also just to see Chris and Corinne! So glad we got to talk with them for a bit. It's the first wedding that I've been to since I got married. Didn't participate in the bouquet toss.. kinda sad though because I've never caught the bouquet before. See! You can still get married without catching it. And Sam was thrilled not to have to participate in the garter toss! Haha.

After the wedding, we headed back home to Fresno. It was a long drive. I studied for my geography and popular fiction finals that I had the next day. We got home around 12:30am. It was an overall wonderful trip. Hope to do it again sometime!!!

My Christmas Listenin' List

I love this time of year. The changing colors in the trees with beautiful combinations of greens, reds, oranges and yellows. I love the change from hot to cold. Here in California, we unfortunately don't get much of a Autumn, but I definitely love what comes with the cold weather like blankets and scarves. I love time with my family and friends over dinner, board games or coffee. I enjoy setting up decorations around the house. But every Christmas season, one of the things I look forward to the most is wonderfully fun Christmas music. I'm not sure what it is, but I just love it.

With that said, here are my top 5 Christmas albums:

Number 5: If On A Winter's Night- Sting
This album isn't necessarily a "Christmas" album, but I'm classifying it as one anyway. The reason I say this is because Sting's lyrics are mostly about the season, Winter and not Christmas. The cd has a large variety of songs that you've never heard of; it's all new stuff. It's refreshing to hear something different.
Must Listens: Soul Cake (it's super catchy, but not in a bad way)

Number 4: Christmas Eve and Other Stories - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
First of all, I love orchestrated music. It's absolutely beautiful.  Second, I love rock. Put them together and you get this wonderful music. And for the most part with Trans-Siberian's cds, they tend to tell a story. I picked this song mainly because one of my favorite Christmas songs ever is on it. The song Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 is a wonderful, timeless song. The music video for it adds so much more to the song which makes me love this song even more.
Must Listens: Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24

Number 3: Let it Snow - Michael Buble
In my completely biased opinion, this album is terrific. Michael Buble really has a way of capturing the classic songs and turning them modern without ruining them. He continues to do this with Christmas music. It's certainly enjoyable, then again, he can do no wrong.
Must Listens: Home for Christmas

Number 2: Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas - KT Tunstall
This is definitely the most fun Christmas cd I own. The only part I don't like about it is that it's just so short. She adds rock to some classics and in some songs she even uses a xylophone and kazoo. Her rendition of the Hawaiian Christmas tune, Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii) is phenomenal. This album is definitely unconventional.
Must Listens: Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii) and Fairytale of New York

Number 1: Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi
Every since I was a kid, I've been a Charlie Brown fan. And I absolutely love Vince Guaraldi. While listening to the radio, it's always so easy to pick out his music from the others. It's so wonderful! This album is just filled with so many classics.
Must Listens: Linus & Lucy

Now here's your job: Go out and buy all these albums then thank me for introducing you to some great stuff. Enjoy these tunes for the next few weeks! Merry Christmas!

P.S. I totally wrote this blog backwards with exception to the introduction.

The Reality of History through Mad Men

After finding out what the show Mad Men was about just a few weeks ago, I knew I had to see it because it sounded just like the show I would enjoy because as you may already know, I'm pretty sure I was born during the wrong time. And sure enough, I do love it. I just finished the first episode of the first season and I'm disappointed it took me so long to watch this show.

I have a, let's say, interesting take on this show because in my 'women in history' class we are currently talking about women in the 1950s-60s. This show depicts exactly what we've been talking about these past few weeks.  It's this idea that women are primarily put on this Earth to be wives and mothers.They supposedly find their ultimate happiness in serving others through household chores. They're more concerned with the latest floor wax than a new car.

Right away, you're made aware of how unhappy Don Draper's wife is. She says that she's happy with her life and happy with the way things are going, but it's clear that she's not. This is exactly what these women felt like. They were unhappy and unfulfilled by their roles of housewives. Of course, they keep it inside because if they said anything then they were said to have something wrong with them. Women are supposed to find their ultimate satisfaction in being married and having children.

After having a semi-argument with a client, he was told to reconcile with her, I believe her name was Rachel. This is a little how the conversation went:

Draper:“Well, it’s just that you’re a beautiful, educated woman, don’t you think that getting married and having a family would make you happier than all the headaches that go along with fighting people like me?”

After Rachel corrects him and tells him that she basically enjoys her work, he says...

“So that’s it, you won’t get married because you find business to be a thrill.”

It's just interesting to see this played out. It's such a different world than things are now. I feel like I'm watching this show as if I had read the book first. I'm just watching it with a different perspective because of everything I'm learning. The show is fun and definitely my kind of thing. I'm excited to see what happens on the show.

Reasons to love Mad Men
John Hamm: For two reasons, actually. One being he played a small part in Gilmore Girls. He played Peyton, a man Lorelai dated for a very short period. And if you're on Gilmore Girls, you automatically win in my book. And, he made this video with Michael Buble (another way to get on my good side) on Saturday Night Live.

Watch the video here. And Love.

Progressive's Flo: Yes, that's right. FLO. She has a cameo on it! Pure brilliance. She's an operator.

For the love of music

Peanuts and records = my favorite

I, alone, own probably about 300 CDs. Since I married Sam, I've probably acquired an extra 200 or so CDs.

These little round discs are becoming rapidly more unpopular as time goes on. It seems now that most people would rather use iTunes to download the latest album from their favorite artist.

As for me, I love the CD.
And more recently, in the last four or five years, I've begun to love vinyl records, and now I own probably over 100 albums. They're all kinds of wonderful.

I just love having something tangible. One of my favorite parts about buying a new CD is tearing through the plastic, taking off the sticker with artist's name and album title, (usually sticking it somewhere random) and then looking through the booklet inside. I love seeing the art, the lyrics and just anything else the band put together to create this CD.

As for vinyl, it's not so much that I buy new artist's records. I love looking for old vinyl, you know, when that's all there was. I thoroughly enjoy digging through piles upon piles of dusty records to see what I can find. Whether it's a record I find that I want to buy, or a record that just has an over-the-top crazy picture on the front, I love it all. Nothing compares to it.

As for me, I've always been "behind the times" when it comes to music. In the last year, I've just gotten a iPod. That was a gift too. I'm still convinced that the old classics (Beach Boys, Beatles, CCR, Frank Sinatra, the Kinks, the Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Huey Lewis & the News, etc) are the best music around. No beating it. And, I don't know. I don't ever think that I'll transition from my beloved CDs/vinyls to digital. Sorry, iTunes.

What do you think? Anyone else with me on this??

Looking toward the future and it's a dark abyss

Less than two months left of my undergraduate career and while I'm thrilled for it to be over, I must say, I'm scared out of my mind.

I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. I feel like I haven't done enough in my life to know what I want to do.

While I loved working in a newspaper atmosphere, I don't really see myself headed in that direction. I loved working and writing for The Collegian, but I don't see it being something that I want to do with the rest of my life.

Now, I'm not saying that I made a mistake in picking print journalism as my major, because I didn't. I had a blast, met a ton of amazing people and learned a lot. I know I'm a better writer and a better person because of it all. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

To make matters worse, I am constantly discouraged in one of my classes because the professor is consistently saying how important it is to have an internship under your belt. I agree with this, but she makes me feel like since I don't have an internship to put on my resume, I'm not going to get anywhere for a long time. I was so close to having an internship too, but since the person I would be working for lost her job because of budget cuts, I lost my internship. Since I was only at Fresno State for two years (I was a transfer student), and working at The Collegian for one of those years, this was really the only semester that I could have done an internship. I was excited about the internship I almost had too. Working for the communications department at Community Medical Centers. It would have given me the chance to do something I haven't done before. I guess it wasn't meant to be though.

So basically right now, I'm just trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to be. I'm considering more and more graduate school in the next couple years, so we'll see where that takes me.

I think I just really want to experience more. I've applied for some jobs that I'm hoping to hear back from soon.

Target and Best Buy.
PicturePeople: Figured this would be fun since one of my passions is photography.
Photojojo: Granted, this would require internet connection and a comfortable seat since it's customer service related, but I thought it could be fun and teach me a lot.

Right now, I'm hoping for the best and waiting to see where God leads me.

In need of a major rejuvenation

Have you ever had a place literally take your breath away? I don't find it happening to me very often, or ever really, but it has happened.

These are the places that I want to go when I want to get away. When I need to replenish my soul. That may sound cheesy, but it couldn't be more true.

I'd venture to say one of the more obvious places is Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Mostly because that place holds a good portion of my heart, but also because it's simply a beautiful place with beautiful people. Now, this isn't one of those places that I can just jump in the car and get to in a few hours, but the memories always make feel better. This place changed my life, which is another blog for another time.

The following pictures were while on Sugarloaf in Brazil.

Another place, is the beach. Really, any beach will do. It's the ocean that I love. Not even swimming in it, because I don't like swimming in the ocean. It's just peaceful. I love the sound of the waves as they crash against the shore. I love the sand in between my toes. I love walking along the beach... not to sound like a lame classified advertisement.

There's just something about staring out into the ocean that brings me peace. It's just amazing God's creation. It's hard to describe. Now enjoy some more loveliness:

Then there's those times when I wish I were a bird and could just fly!

Finally, there's a place where I can say "this place took my breath away." It was so wonderful, in its entirety. A picture won't do it justice but I'll share anyway.

Know where it is yet?

Yup, Yosemite.
Yosemite is filled with amazing sites, but this is the one place that I just loved.
Now, I couldn't tell you where exactly in Yosemite, because I don't remember. What I do remember is that to get to this, you had to walk down and around this walkway and looking between two trees was this huge green meadow, mountains, a waterfall, several trees and a deer eating. It was if this moment was made for me. I can't explain it. Writing this, it reminds me of an excerpt I love from a book called "Captivating" written by John and Stasi Elderedge. I know it's long, but it's beautiful and the best way to describe my thoughts on this.

"Every song you love, every memory you cherish, every moment that has moved you to holy tears has been given to you from the One who has been pursuing you from your first breath in order to win your heart. God's version of flowers and chocolates and candlelight dinners comes in the form of sunsets and falling stars, moonlight on lakes and cricket symphonies; warm wind, swaying tress, lush gardens, and fierce devotion. This romancing is immensely personal. It will be as if it has been scripted for your heart. He knows what takes your breath away, knows what makes your heart beat faster. We have missed many of his notes simply because we shut out hearts down in order to ...endure the pain of life. Now, in our healing journey, we must open our hearts again, and keep them open. Not foolishly, not to anyone and anything. But yes, we must choose to open our hearts again so that we might hear His whispers receive His kisses."

I thank God for these places and that He gave me the chance to experience them. I hope I get to do so again several times in the future.

With that said, I could really use a rejuvenation. Just a day away from this place. Any of these places will do, really. Just me, my camera, the world God created and probably Sam too. :)


Now I'm interested in where you go and what you do to rejuvenate. Leave what you have to say in the comments because I'd love to know.

Dating vs. Marriage: School edition

This past weekend, Sam and I visited our families in Porterville. It was the first time we'd been back since we returned from our honeymoon.

Sunday morning, I went to the church that Sam (well, when he's in town) and his family attend regularly. Since Sam was playing bass there, I went over to the church that I normally attend, sans the husband.

I got there a little early. Saw a lady that I haven't seen in a while and started talking with her. We were talking about my recent marriage and school. She says, "Isn't it so much easier being married while being in school than it is dating?"

I couldn't agree with her more.Granted, I've only been married a little under two months.

This got me thinking about how many different thoughts and experiences there are on this.

For some reason, I had always thought you were supposed to graduate college, then get married. It wasn't until I was talking with a friend of mine a few years back, that it actually hit me that it was okay to get married while still being in college. She was telling me that her and her husband got married while still in school and things turned out well for them. If I'm being completely honest, I never even really thought about getting married until I was done with school.

Back in April, when Sam proposed, I remember a few reactions from some were a little off.
"So, are you quitting school then?"

Um. No. What kind of a reaction is that to "I'm getting married!" Why would I quit school because I was getting married, especially since I only had one semester left?

Just another interesting thought on the whole being married while still in school.

The best part is that there's no more:
"I need to get going because I have homework to do."
I can still be with Sam at home and do my homework. It's really rather great!

So, as long as there's no babies, I'm pro being married and going to school.

A monster of a burger

Angelica and I have been trying to have lunch for the last week and a half. Today we were finally able to do so! It was exciting.

We decided to hit up Eureka!Burger on Palm after hearing about the place just a couple days ago.

Here's the beautiful, beautiful burger.
Better known as "The Cowboy." A great combination of meat, bacon, onion straws and BBQ sauce.

Here's its good side though:

We got it and were instantly like "How do we eat this thing?" We just dived right in. Angelica cut it in half while I wrapped my hands around this monster and took a bite.

It was definitely one of the better burgers I have had. You could taste the grill on it, if that makes any sense. And the bacon wasn't that thin kind of stuff, it was real bacon. Good thick bacon.

While the waitresses memory was something to be desired, I still enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. Our waitress came for our drink order, went to get our Mr. Pibb and Diet, came back not more than a minute later and had already forgotten who had what. While this isn't that big of a deal, we had a good laugh about it. Pretty sure she forgot about us again when we sat there for a good while with only ice in our cups. The next time she came back with our refills, to my surprise, she remembered that I had the Pibb.

Anyway, eat there now, thank me later!

The art of making new friends and other stuff too

Oh for three (0/3)

Last night, I went with a few ladies to dinner. I was told we were going to go to Samurai Sam's for dinner. So I drive over there, running a bit late, and receive a text message from Naomi saying they're closed. We try another teriyaki place. Turns out they were closed down. So we decide to try yet another teriyaki place on Willow/Herndon and they were closed too.

Not a good night for teriyaki joints.

We decide to go to Sequoia Sandwich Company because it was right there. I was excited because I've heard nothing but great things about them. I got the French Dip, which was awesome. That's my default sandwich.

Afterward, we went back to Naomi's house to hang out. The guys from the college group had also gone out to dinner, so they met us there too.

We just talked and then we played a game. It was a lot of fun. There were probably 10 people there. They are an amazingly fun group of people.

It reminded me of when I first moved to Fresno two years ago. I didn't really know anyone. Sam was here, and I knew both my roommates because they were both from Porterville. Sam and I wanted to find a church right away to get connected with some people. We knew a family who were attending Clovis Evangelical Free Church so that's where we started to go and that's where we've stayed. There we have made some great friends.

At school, I didn't even make friends until a year ago.

It's like, how did I make friends when I was a kid? It's so incredibly hard, especially when you move to a completely different place. I was always in the same town with the same people. Most of the time, I at least knew a few people, but how do you make friends when you don't have any connections to anyone? It's not something I ever thought about until I moved.

When does a friendship go from hanging out where you met (school, church, etc) to actually hanging out other places? I've often wondered this in the last couple of years with all the friends I've made.

It's just a weird thought. Glad I've gained a ton of new friends here in Fresno because now this town is actually starting to feel like home.

A new start

After blogging with LiveJournal for the last seven years, I've decided to transition over to BlogSpot and start fresh. While I'll probably still use my other blog, I plan to use this one more often.

After all, I've started a new chapter in my life.

With graduation on its way, and recently being married, I can feel that things are definitely different.

This is my life and observations from here on out.