College Scrapbooks=Finished!

My college scrapbooks are finally finished!!! Yay!! I felt a feeling of accomplishment as I glued down the last page this past Thursday. I'm a little sad to have my two year project come to an end but now I can finally start my wedding album :) Here's a little snippet of the scrapbooks:First page of Freshmen Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

Senior Year :)

*sniff* Last page in my scrapbook saga :)

An Update....

Sometimes I look back at my blog posts and realize I don't mention a thing about what God is doing in my life. Maybe it's just because I assume everyone knows He has been doing great things or maybe I don't want to be churchy...I don't know the reason but I thought about it this weekend and knew I needed to write about how God is shaping me during this time of our life.

Over this past month, I have gone through so many emotions...happy, sad, discouraged, hopeful, regretful, frustrated, and angry. While my emotions right now are overjoyed and hopeful, that's not why I'm writing :) Instead, I wanted to share how God has been using this time to bring me closer to Him.

As you all know throughout my last few weeks of blogs, so many things have gone wrong for us. We felt like we were constantly waiting and things kept falling apart. Although I was angry at times, I still had this immense peace that God had everything under control. In fact, I can say that I am overjoyed that God let us go through struggles because it has in fact brought me closer to Him. I have been reminded of how much I need to surrender every day to God's plan instead of my own. As a couple, Aaron and I are relying on God with every bit of strength in us and He has given us so much hope and is bringing things together in his perfect timing.

A few blessings:
We feel so blessed to have found a church and a wonderful small group that accepted us right away! They are wonderful! Also, another blessing is....because we don't have a house payment, we are able to save like crazy and follow Dave Ramsey's money advice. We are so blessed to have a roof over our heads and wonderful parents who are helping us out by letting us stay here!

Third, I've had a breakthrough with what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. You could call it taking it "year by year" and for this particular year, 2010, I don't feel called to go back to school to further MY education. I instead feel very called to get my husband through school. Then, I thought about what I want to do during this time. I still love working with kids. And, the big reason why I don't want to be a teacher is because of the time it can take away from family. It helped me clarify what I want to do, so now I'm pursing a job that will work with kids, provide for us, but not be a full time teacher. I'm still on the job search but very very encouraged that God will provide :)

Finally, although I hate talking about finances, I do want to vaguely share that we were immensely blessed today with 2 very unexpected checks in the mail :) God is very much showing His glory through providing financially for us and I give Him all the praise!! :) So, there you have it....an update on us :) Thank you so much for the prayers....I can feel that people are praying for us right now!

A Memory Filled Weekend

This weekend, my cousin Tisha and I had a fabulous idea to visit my other cousin Amber in northern MN. Although the weather was trying to get us down, we had a wonderful, memory making weekend! And, we thankfully decided to leave last night so we beat the blizzard! Yay!

Saturday was girls night out! We went to a chick flick and ate desserts at an adorable dessert/coffee shop!

Soooo good!!! What a fun weekend!!!!

Now I'm back home and asking you to pray that I would get a job :) Subbing jobs have been few and far between and I am in a job search this week. Would you pray with us that God would provide a job for me?? Thank you :) Stay warm all you crazy Midwesterners!

On Any Given Night....

This is what you will see at the Willey residence now:My husband...reading and studying a few hours every night. He is so motivated and I'm so proud of him already. Only 3 more years! :)

Finishing Off the Story :)

Wonder what happened in my story? Well, there's not too much to tell...only that my car was towed away and we are seeing if there is any repair to it. If not, we'll be raiding Craigslist and the newspaper to find a cheap, yet reliable car :)

And, today we're feeling so hopeful and had quite the laugh about it this morning. :) So, there you have it...the rest of the story. :)

Another One Bites the Dust

*Disclaimer* These posts are not intended to make anyone feel sorry for us rather share with you the blessings AND the struggles we've been going through lately

I woke up this morning feeling so refreshed, so full of life. We found a phone for Aaron, I was going to look for a full time job and perhaps make some money for us, and I had a wonderful quiet time with God.

1:30 rolled around and I needed to make a quick stop at the post office. I got my keys, decided to take a scarf and gloves to be fashionable (since I thought it looked warm today and I wouldn't need it) and started up my car. A strange burning smell emerged from my car but I simply ignored it as I backed out. I made a mental note to tell my husband when he got home and started toward my destination.

10 minutes later, I reached the post office, mailed off letters and started my car again. I drove no more than 500 feet when all of a sudden smoke was steaming out of my engine. You have GOT to be kidding I thought to myself. Just keep driving...it will go away.

My car has done some interesting things in the past but smoke has never emerged from my engine. I used to think it would be fun to be like my uncles who had stories of smoke and fire coming from their engines as they drove down the highway. Soon, my whole car was filling with black smoke and I decided that this was not normal! I turned onto an exit and halfway up the exit, my car stopped and I hurriedly opened up the door so I could breathe. Having your engine smoke isn't as fun as I thought it would be.

I reached for my cell phone. One of the few days I forgot it at home HAD to be today. I had a decision to make. Wait until 7:00 when my husband got home from work in a smoke filled car OR, walk 5 miles to get back home.

I grabbed my bright green scarf and lime green purse and started the walk. Along the way, I tried to find the good in the situation. At least I got my exercise in for the week. At least it's daytime and I know my way home. I'm sure I gave someone a laugh in my bright green scarf walking 5 miles in the middle of January.

An hour later, I finally walked in the door and tried calling anyone who could help. Aaron's at work until 7 and can't pick up. My parents are at work. My in-laws are in California. My brother's working. I don't know anyone else in Mankato.

So, here I sit. No happy ending and in the middle of a story that is yet to unfold. Funny how just this morning I was thinking I wonder what kind of car I would like when my car dies? It was a fleeting thought as I thanked the Lord that my car was still running and hoping it would last at least another year.

So, another thing has bit the dust. My trusty car, James (named after my license plate 007 MOO), who was with me throughout college, camp, Minneapolis, and Cherokee. You've been good to me. I don't think there's any fixing you this time.....Goodbye.

Cell Phone Replacement

Date: Last Wednesday
Time: 10:30 am
Location: MSU campus
What: Aaron's cell phone was stolen

I was hesitant to write about this before because it didn't have a happy ending, but now I have a somewhat happy ending to share:

Two weeks ago, we decided to take insurance off of our cell phones to cut costs. HA....great timing, I know. If you know about cell phones, you know that the wonderful prices that you buy them at are only good with a two-year agreement, making it vital to have insurance if you ever need to replace it.

So, after we found out that it was stolen, we knew that to buy a replacement phone would be an insane amount that we don't have. We also knew that we had a former phone that we could use but it was in a random box in our storage unit.

Finally today we knew we needed to either buy a replacement or search really hard for our former phone. We went to our storage unit and after a little digging, we found the box that we thought we had packed it in. As Aaron picked it up, the bottom of the box split open sending all the contents falling between furniture and boxes.

We came back to our place, discouraged yet again that our former phone was probably lying on the ground of our storage unit. We finally accepted we would need to buy another.

Now for the happy ending:
As I walked down the stairs minutes later, a lonely backpack caught my eye. It couldn't be in there, I thought. Why would we put the Razr phone in there? I decided to check anyways and lo and behold, our former Razr phone! We cried and thanked the Lord so many times :)

The end :)

Oh to Be Sadie

My dog is hilarious! We didn't really put alot of thought into getting a dog a few years ago...we just kind of acted upon a random thought and picked out the sassiest free puppy at a farm close by.

Thus, the start of Sadie. She has the personality of a toddler and I would dare say she and I communicate....on a daily basis. HA! I'm just waiting for her to talk back to me one of these days :) Anyways, today I decided I wanted her life. Seriously, what's better than this?Sleeping whenever she feels like it

People and squirrel watching

Playing with a variety toys

And having masters like these two!
Who occasionally "accidentally" drop table food for her

Haha, just kidding....I think I'll just watch Sadie be cute and enjoy her companionship while my husband studies away :) Happy Friday, all!

Finding your Passion

I finally watched the movie "Julie and Julia" tonight. While I wish I could say that it inspired me to become a better cook, it didn't.....but I did get something else out of it :) The thing I got out of it was when Julia Child was trying to figure out what she wanted to do...what her passion was. It reached to my very core because it's where I'm at right now.

While I love children and have a desire to see them grow, I'm not an aspiring young teacher. My goal in life is not to become Teacher of the Year and I would much rather teach at a small Christian school than work my way up the ladder in a large school district. Teaching is not my passion, however I do love kids.

This realization has caused quite the stir in my heart as I feel like I'm just going through the motions of life...trying to figure out what my passions are. Sure, music, theater, creating things (sewing, scrapbooking), and sports are hobbies but are they my passions? And can a passion always be what your career is?

I also desire to live in Africa someday and work in an orphanage. But is that a passion or just a far out dream that I've had all my life?

Is anyone else going through a "Mid-twenties" crisis? I don't want to miss opportunities but at the same time I want to be content in the here and the now and focus on what God has for me today. Perhaps it's the thought that I would do something great in my life by now and I haven't which has caused a feeling of defeat. Whatever it is, I would love to hear that I'm not alone!

Our New Place of Residency

Living simply is actually pretty fun! I've rather enjoyed setting up a little area and living on a few dishes, a few food items, and living without many of our things. We feel like we're back at college (oh wait, one of us IS) Anyways....here you have it...our new place of residency!

Erika's Desk Area

Aaron's Desk Area

Our "Kitchen" Area

I posted this pic just to show off my husband's woodworking skills since he built this fish tank stand over Christmas!

Life is good and we're learning what it means to take each day as it comes and trust God completely. Although I've definitely had my moments of being truly scared of the future, I am so confident that God will show us the way in His timing and there is no better place to be at right now than in His timing. :)

Ahhh, Better Day :)

I KNEW that today would be better...fresh outlook on life, sleep, long hot shower :)

Yesterday our fish were on the ground of the fish tank, barely breathing. We turned off the light last night and thought the remaining 4 would be dead by morning. However, this morning we turned on the light to find them still alive and swimming around! Yeah...much better day!!

Then, Aaron got an offer for a part time job up here! Yay! At least one of us can start working soon! So, again, this is a MUCH better day :)

Now we're continuing to switch things over to Minnesota...driver's license, insurance, blah blah :) Remind me not to move for a VERY long time again!! It's so time consuming and overwhelming! Well, I must go run one more errand for the day!

One of Those Days Again!

Yes, today was one of "those" days again....you know, the ones that you can't WAIT to be done with! The ones where things seem to go wrong at every which way! Well, that was our day today

It all started at 6:15 this morning....we got up to drive to Cherokee to close on our house. An hour into it and we started hearing "Winter Storm Warning! Do not travel if you don't have to" HA....so we drove in very difficult weather conditions all the way to Cherokee.

Once there, we headed to our realtors to close on our house. Once we got there, we found out that he could have mailed the papers to us and we actually didn't have to go to the closing. What?? How does that miscommunication happen!? Oh well...we still had a few odds and ends to pick up from the house so we somewhat justified our 6 hour round trip...

After spending only 15 minutes in Cherokee, we headed back into the storm to drive all the way back to Mankato. Oh, did I mention there's more?

I was supposed to be able to log into my subbing account by today but the system is still down...meaning no jobs for me yet.

After a full day of discouragement, we came back to our temporary home only to find our beautiful tropical fish....dead. They have been slowly dying all day because of the move and the water changes (it being so cold, etc.) but so far three are dead and the other ones are dying slowly as we speak.

*Sigh* Things could be much worse but a full day of discouragement is certainly hard sometimes! Maybe a good night's sleep and a day of rest tomorrow is what we need :) I hope your day was MUCH better than ours!

Merry Christmas...a little late :)

Here's our "online Christmas card" :) Sending one out this year was not feasible but hopefully you'll still feel the love from this online, very belated version!! :) We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!