A Journey

The Journey. A catchy title and the name I have chosen as the signature for my blog. When I created a blog a little over a year ago, I don't think I knew how many things would happen on my journey through life. As I stated in our "about us" section, our journey has had many ups and downs but we have learned lessons and have pressed on during the good and the bad.

One thing I've been struck by lately is the people who have been on my life's journey. As I graduated from high school, I looked at the 5 other graduates standing next to me and wanted to freeze time. I knew our journeys would be going different ways and I would perhaps not see them again.

However, my journey has taken an interesting twist. Those people were not done in my life's journey and I was not done in theirs. It all started with a little thing called Facebook. :) We reconnected online and over Christmas, my high school friends and I reunited and had an amazingly encouraging time together. It was absolutely just what I needed at that exact time in my journey. You would think not a day went by since we were last together at a slumber party but the truth was, 5 years have gone by, 4 of us got married, and one of them has had three children already. However, as we sat at the kitchen table, we encouraged and laughed together~just like old times.

God doesn't make mistakes. This was no coincidence. He has each one of us on a journey and I am just thrilled to see what other "twists and turns" He has for us on our journey. We may have some hard and difficult twists, or we may have other unexpected and encouraging (such as this one was) twists. Whatever they may be, I am accepting this journey that God has planned for my life and I wholeheartedly want to enjoy every part of it, the good and the bad.

Me & My Dog

I love my dog :) What a great companion!
Although she doesn't look like it, she really likes to be pet and loves hugs from us :)

Highlights from our week:
*Our computer's fixed!!
*The season premiere of LOST!! I'm so excited!
*Small groups at church started 2 weeks ago...I LOVE our group and the curriculum!
*Youth Group finally started up again after a week of bad weather!
*Yesterday was our 2.5 year anniversary! Time is flying!
*I got some amazingly good deals shopping yesterday:
-Stockings for next year $.60-$1.00,
-Awesome Antique "Joy to the World" sign $1.25
*Hobby Lobby 90%, Gordmans 75% off all Christmas stuff
*Motivation to spend alot of quality time in the Word and in prayer

This has been a very good week! :) Love to you all!!

Reformatting

I wish I wasn't writing about such a trivial thing as my computer, but I told you about the virus so I wanted to give a bit of an update. After programs didn't completely get rid of the virus, Aaron and I finally decided to reformat it today. This morning, however, I decided to go online, just to see how bad the spyware was. Curiosity killed the cat :) Something happened...who knows what, sending my computer worse off than before and I think I got another virus WAY worse than before. SO, we're in the process of getting it fixed and completely reformatting.

Although I would never want another virus on my computer, these last two weeks without internet at the touch of my fingers was absolutely crucial to me. I found out that I didn't miss facebook and could do without a blog. Only important e-mails caught my attention since I had limited time to look at e-mail. Do I really need internet? The answer is clearly no. Will I still blog and use facebook? Probably. However, it was good for me to see how much time it freed up because it helped me refocus my priorities. So, another lesson learned on my journey. Well, onto finishing up the reformatting procedures...bye!

Virus

Ugh. I really don't like viruses in the body, but I really really despise viruses in computers! I have never had a virus (at least one that I had to fix myself), but on Saturday I became victim to a virus on my computer. It's mostly spyware stuff but I'm trying and trying stuff and it still isn't gone. I think it's on its last leg, but just wanted to let you know that I will be MIA until I get it fixed. Right now I have a love/hate relationship with the internet and right now it's mostly on the hate side :) Hope you're all doing well and I look forward to catching up soon! :)

New Years Day

2009 started out with a bang! Any holiday with my extended family will always be a bang because we laugh and laugh and laugh some more :) I was thinking as we were driving home that I'm so thankful that I grew up knowing my cousins. Even though some of us didn't live close to each other, my family has always been so intentional about getting together and because of that, I am so close to all of my cousins and absolutely love it! :) I am so thankful for my family and can't wait to see those of you I haven't seen for a while hopefully soon!

Rest of Christmas

Time has slipped away from me and I find myself back to work and saying goodbye to another Christmas season. We really had an amazing Christmas though...we took some time off to see both of our families and we even spent a few days in St. Paul visiting our old stompin' grounds and seeing friends :) I wish we could have stayed longer than just the two days we were there so we could have seen way more people, but maybe this summer!! :)

Unfortunately I didn't take a single pic of Aaron's family Christmas. I have been really bad about taking any pictures this year, but at holidays? I should be better! :) But, since I have no pictures, we exchanged gifts, went shopping (lots of shopping!), ate alot, and just had a fun time being with each other! On Tuesday, we headed to St. Paul to see my brother and sister-in-law. Again, no pictures, but Monica and I went to the Landmark Center, watched a movie, ate pizza, and the four of us played the Wii. Their apartment is gorgeous and we had a blast visiting them! Now, onto the picture summary of the rest of our time away...

In front of our first apartment! *tear*

This is where I "found the one my heart loves" :) I remember watching Aaron walk by my dorm room in his security uniform... oh the memories :)

More from our college...

New Years Eve with some friends from Willmar! We had a blast with Matt and Heather! It was so good to reconnect with old friends :)

Seeing my dear former roommate, Sarah, and picking up where we left off :)

Ahhh....Caribou Coffee, Caramel Cooler....oh how I miss thee :)

Feeling Like Anne

After we had our Christmas by ourselves, we drove over to my parents' house to start Christmas with our families and friends! I entitled this post "Feeling Like Anne" because my parents recently moved to my grandparents' farm. I have always loved my grandparents' farm, so to have it be the place where my parents now live is especially fun! :) I imagined it being harder to adjust to a new place but maybe because it is so familiar, it was so easy and felt like home. :) Anyway, it is a very "Anne of Green Gable-ish" house. As I was jumping into bed Christmas day night, the wind was 30 mph and I could hear it blowing through the window in the upstairs "spare of all spare" bedrooms :) I snuggled up under the down comforter and just took it all in. I felt like Anne. It was a very memorable Christmas experience :) We had a hilarious time with my family playing Catch Phrase, Scattergories, opening presents, watching movies, going shopping, and just hanging out. We had a wonderful Christmas with them :)

For all those LOST fans out there....doesn't my brother have a striking resemblance to Daniel Farraday from Season 4?? I just couldn't get over how much he looked like him!!

So Exhausted, So Worth It

I am so tired...we just got back from a week long Christmas journey!! :) It was such a great week and I have TONS to update on so stay tuned to alot of stories and pics in the coming days. For right now...I'm going to bed and reliving my wonderful Christmas vacation :) Does it really have to be over soon? Good night and Happy New Year!!!!!!