The Easter Bunny Came!

Here are some photos from my time in my home town with my family for Easter:

Hubby and I on Easter Sunday

My adorable parents 

Game time! (sister Rach grinning) 

I won this game! (I'm the yellow) 

My mom never fails to feed us way too much good food. 

Brothers: My hubby, and Rachel's hubby Nathan :)

Molly's first Easter

I think she likes her pretty Easter dress! 

so cute! 

alright, this is the the last one. At least of my family, I'll do another post for my crafting while I was there! I just had to show you how Molly crosses her ankles like a lady, cause it's so cute!

Hope you all had a very blessed Easter celebrating that our Lord is risen, risen indeed! And that through that truth we know that by grace, through faith, in Christ, we will be risen and know eternal life too!

Thank you Jesus! 

My husband knows the way to my heart :)

Starbucks (extra hot!) and freshly made "Donut parade" donuts! YUM :)

Babysitting Molly

Today I am babysitting my niece :)

Valentines Day

As you all probably know Valentines Day is coming up so I figured now is a great time to feature some cute "Valentine themed" decorations in my house.  This idea came to me because my dear sister just bought a house and now has an amazing built in hutch where she can display her seasonal decor. Her blog "Keep it Simple" featured some of the decorations she came up with (all without spending a dime!) for her hutch and I was inspired. You can see her lovely decor here. So here are my results:

Everything was pulled from things I already had around the house, including a red frame with "Love" across the top, and a picture of Michael and I in it, a couple red boxes that normally hold my jewelry and trinkets, fake bright pink flowers (Dollar Tree purchase), and some hearts I cut out of scrapbooking scraps pinned on to extra pink curling ribbon I had laying around the house. 

I encourage you to "shop" your house for seasonal decor and find ways to make your house just a little more beautiful :)

Molly is 6 months!

I cannot believe my niece is already 6 months old! And she's huge!

I made a pair of booties for her for Christmas, and they were too small, so I had to make a second pair. Now I just hope I can get them to her before those ones are too small too!

A really good day!

Yesterday was a fantastic day!

First off, my husband and I got a car for me to drive around. It's a 2001 Honda Civic with just over 75,000 miles, and it has been taken very well care of.  I think it's super cute and am so happy I don't have to drive our crappy other car anymore! YAY!

Then, the mail came. Now, just so you understand a little something about me, my husband would say I am obsessed with getting mail. I check the mailbox probably half a dozen times daily. I love getting mail! So imagine my complete elation when I got the mail and received my diploma that I've been waiting for a month and a half to arrive! There's something so wonderful about having the physical proof, the actual document in your hand, to make the accomplishment real. So folks, here it is!

I graduated Summa Cum Laude!


AND not only that arrived in the mail, but the latest Lion Brand magazine arrived! YAY! more pretty patterns and lovely yarns to look at :)

But the wonderfulness of this day did not end there, oh no! Next amazing thing to happen, I got a job!
The school district that I student taught in is hiring me as a sub, and I made an appointment for Monday to fill out all the paperwork to make it official. This is awesome because it means that anything I make from subbing goes directly towards paying off our new car, and then saving for a house!

Then to end my fabulous day, I ate at what I deem to be the best dining experience I have had in months! My husband and some friends and I went to this hole-in-the-wall place some friends had recommended called Laguna Cafe. First off, as we drive into the parking lot, they've got a sign outside that says "Live Jazz tonight," seriously? Could it get any better than good live jazz? It was wonderful :) ...just a little combo, drums, guitar, bass, and trumpet playing some of my favorites like, "My Romance" with such taste and skill! Then we sat down only to have the owner personally seat and greet us, recommend some amazing drinks, and welcome us. We all ordered something different but were blown away by the quality, taste, and reasonable prices of everything. I had a strawberry lemonade smoothie that was the absolute best smoothie I have ever drank, and we all left saying it was an extraordinary place!
All in all, I went to bed wondering if there will ever be a day so unexpectedly lovely like this one anytime soon...

Life lessons.

Life is so silly, how one simple thing can poke and prod at our hearts disturbing our default mode of simply slipping through the day to day with little to no change. This evening I was gently reminded (certainly by the Holy Spirit) of what a prideful hypocrite I can be, and I am so thankful the Lord stopped me through one simple moment raking leaves to humble me.

You see, my husband is out of town on business and I am left to do all the nasty laborious chores he normally takes while he is here. Today, it was raking the yard. Leaves were everywhere, and I had some gloves, a small rake and some kitchen garbage bags. I jumped into the job with enthusiasm and as I made my way from side yard to the front, I thought to myself, "My neighbors must see me out here raking. I wonder what they must be thinking." My first guess was that they would wonder why Michael (who usually does the yard work) isn't raking the yard or carrying around a leaf-blower or doing something manly.

But my thoughts didn't stop there, as I noticed other neighbors out walking/playing with their children, carrying in groceries, etc. I sat there (piling leaves into bags) thinking they must just love having me as a neighbor! From what I've heard, the last tenant was not respectful of the property and ended up costing our landlord a lot of money. I figured the neighbors must love having a pretty yard to look at and love the fact that my husband and I are generally quiet, we don't do drugs, and don't have yappy/aggressive/big/stupid/whatever kind of dogs to poop in other people's yards. Furthermore, I thought, I'm not like this and such neighbor with this and such problem, and I went on and on in my head justifying what a wonderful person I am and how wonderful it must be to live next to me.

As I told myself that I respect my yard more than the neighbors across me because I'm raking my yard, I looked up to see the mom of that house handing her boys rakes. Conviction shot through me as I gaped at the little boys serving their mother by helping to pick the leaves/fruit that had fallen from their trees. I felt a push on my heart that what I had just been saying to myself was a pack of lies, that something evil, my own sin had been speaking to me, stroking my ever dangerously-large ego. Judgement had taken over because of some leaves accumulated on a person's yard, so very quickly I had elevated myself for the very purpose of looking down my nose at the "less worthy" neighbors that must be "such a burden" for their landlord.

Oh shame. Shame, Lizzy, that you do not love like Christ. Shame that you do not desire to serve, but only desire to be noticed and called great. Shame that you are impatient, so far from the Lord, our God, slow to anger and abounding in love.

These small things in life that bring me to a low place, these are the discipline of the Lord. Thank you Lord for your loving discipline! For disturbing my every day pattern of exalting myself.

The Joy in my life

Molly Joy 10 weeks old

some of the sweet men in my life...and Molly :)

Molly with grandpa, both sporting their awesome fohawks.
smiling at her daddy 7 wks old

My Squirrel Friend

This squirrel keeps coming up on our porch and licking the pavement...

Molly Joy

She is so beautiful and has captured my heart! I cannot believe she is already 5 wks old. She makes this furrowed brow look 80% of the time. It's the same face I made as an infant, not because I was unhappy, but because I was trying to figure things out. I still make that face when I'm concentrating (especially when counting my stitches when crocheting!).

Happy 2 Year Anniversary!

My love and I celebrated 2 years of happy union this week, and I just thought I would reflect on what a blessing it has been to be married to this man!

First off- marriage is a wonderful creation made by God to reflect his glory. Woman was created to complete man- to make God's creation finished and "good." It is a wonderful task to live out a reflection of the relationship God shares with himself in the Trinity as well as the relationship Jesus has with his Bride- the church.

It has been an especially edifying experience to share my life exclusively with one man- to be so vulnerable, to be so very humble in a relationship that I choose to honor their good and happiness before my own. I have learned through being married what a wretched sinner I am and how I cannot hide that fact from someone I am so close to. Marriage has taught me how wonderful grace is and how horrifying bitterness can be.

Marriage to Michael, my wonderful husband, has challenged me to grow more towards extroversion than my default mode of complete introversion. He has gently pushed me to speak more, to love lots of company, and to not be so afraid of new adventures. He encourages me to be creative and share my ideas and creations with others. Marriage to Michael means I am not ashamed to be myself, to be silly, and to play my music shamelessly. Marriage to Michael is lots of prayer, time in the word, humble correction, a life with Godly friends and their awesome wisdom, service in ministry, lots of practice and service for Worship team, and a general understanding that the direction of our life is completely in the Lord's hands.

Here is the card I made Michael for our anniversary. I think it looks very bridal

And here is the flowers my amazing husband brought home from work on our anniversary :)

And now for the story of the thank you card in my last post: We were invited over to a friends house (from church) the night of our anniversary for dessert and a little dip in the hot tub. When we got there they discovered it was our anniversary, and insisted they serve us, make us lovely cocktails and have the hot tub to ourselves that night. It was so sweet of them to do that, and we were so blessed just to have time alone that night with our drinks and lovely jets. So we simply had to thank them profusely and my husband asked me to make them a card with a ribbon for "Friends of the Year." I didn't think that would all fit very neatly into my little circle, so I just put a big 1, and told them they won 1st place for the coolest friends.

It is just so clear to me that they understand how important celebrating marriage and the milestones in it is- they clearly showed us by their service they long for God's glory in our marriage and desired that we strengthen it by an unexpectedly romantic evening to ourselves :)

And to cap off the celebrations: We're having a very fancy dinner tonight at a floating restaurant over the Couer d alene lake!

I'm an Aunt!!!

My older sister gave birth to my niece, Molly Joy Dowd 7lbs 14 oz, today through c-section! They are both healthy and doing well! yay!

Stove

Before:

During:

After:

...not perfect but I was done scrubbing. I ended up not using any harmful chemicals- just some baking soda, hot water, vinegar and LOTS of elbow grease! (got to get that deposit back!)

Birthday days

Today I turned 23. It was a weird birthday in that, this is the first time I wasn't super excited thinking, "Ooo! presents, and treats, and birthday cards..." It sort of feels like this is my first real adult birthday, where it's cool that it is my birthday, but it's simply not that big of a deal.

Though it didn't feel quite that celebratory, my husband did an awesome job making me feel celebrated because he snuck into my scrapbooking supplies and made me a card! I was so proud of him, I had to post it!

On the inside he made an anagram of my name. My favorites are the Z's - the first one says, "Z is for ZAP. You zapped me with your voo-doo love and have me under your spell." and the next one is so sweet "Z is for Zero- the number of days I have loved you perfectly. Thank you for your grace!" I am so blessed.

my new home :)

We got the house we looked at to rent! This will be our home as of July 24th, and I'm super excited to no longer share walls with strangers! (we've lived in an apartment for as long as we've been married)

It's a little 2 bed, 1 bath bungalow, and I cannot wait to move and make it my cute little home :)