Many Moments of Marital Bliss

Happy Saturday Afternoon to our wonderful family and friends!

We hope this finds you all happy and well. Doug and I kind of relived our college days last night. I was about to write "younger days", but then I thought... wait we are still young! It's so funny how sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our busy work weeks, that we find ourselves dead by the end of the weekend. We got a chance to visit our good friend (and one of our groomsmen) Rob last night. He had a wonderful housewarming party, and cooked us a killer dinner. It was truly restaurant style! It's always nice to see good friends. I am enclosing some pictures we took before the night really began. The transition from college to "the real world" is definitely an interesting one on the friends scale. In college, everyone sees each other all the time. In "the real world", we really need to make the effort to see one another. It doesn't help that we are all spread throughout southern California, but we do the best we can. Thank God I get to live for my best friend, and even in spite of busy schedules, we don't have to make time for one another. Hehehe. I still get the giggles when I think about that.... I get to live with my best friend. :) Right now he is watching TV on OUR couch (that a lot of your generously helped get us from the wedding..... THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Your gifts truly give on in our household... so if you havent heard it enough from us... THANK YOU).

As you all know, I am a teacher. I am teaching summer school this summer. Now, I try not to complain about the school system. It comes out of course, but there are enough teachers in the world who do it. I do have my weak moments, but I truly try to keep my optimistic perspective that all students are wonderful and deserve a high caliber education. That being said, the particular curriculum that was given to me was extremely skim, and how do I say this nicely.... too simple for the intellectual minds of soon-to-be seniors. So, I have been having to supplement. After going over 20 intense grammar rules, added daily vocabulary, supplemental reading, debating the top 10 supreme court cases every student should know, I found myself still running out of material to teach (we are in the classroom for 4 and a half hours a day!). So I brought in one of my favorite lesson plans.... THE VELVETEEN RABBIT! I stumbled across basically a self-help book that relates to the principle's of this story. The book is called "The Principles of the Velveteen Rabbit." I have left the book in my car, so when I go and get it, I will share the particular passage that I speak of in this post. Well you all know that the Velveteen Rabbit is a children's story. But it is packed with so many lessons! As I was going through the overview of the lesson, I read how the author came about writing the velveteen principles. She was in a doctor's office and saw a very old couple walk in. Well, actually, the husband was walking, and pushing his wife in her wheelchair. Long story short, the author of this book in modern day terms would be considered an extremely attractive and "hot" woman. However, she looked at that older couple and the older woman with such jealously. She saw the calm confidence the woman had in herself, and in the love of her husband. She had absolutely nothing going for her physically. She was really falling apart. The author had said this woman was "everything we as women have been taught to avoid becoming." Then the author was at home, and overheard her kids reading the velveteen rabbit. She realized that it wasn't the physical outside nature that made that woman lovely and LOVED, it was her true inner beauty. And I was absolutely stunned by that, and in that moment I wanted to cry. I had read that particular book to students before, but then I realized that I am headed for that old life with Doug. It is very close to the poem Doug's mom read at the wedding about old love. While Doug and I are still a bit superficial (and come on, what young people are not), I truly do hope that even in our younger years, we live vivaciously, but try to strive for the old love. :)









NOW THURSDAY, July 31st.....


It's been close to a week since I wrote the above story. I realized that I never published it, so I'm adding an additional post. I'M FREE! Well I am almost free. I can't consider the next week the most horrible thing in the world, but I am dreading being away from my husband for an entire work week. :( I love him so much.... and we are just too new in our marriage to be away from each other! :( I get to go to San Diego for an AVID conference. I am excited about the actual conference and the people I'm going with, but I am NOT excited about being away from my husband. I love being around him all the time. :) Lol. He is so fun! He is so entertaining.... and well to save this from being a blog about how wonderful Doug is... I will stop. But I do have one more cute story to share before I sign off I want to share a very cute, short story with you. So I am busy updating my address book. A lot of our college friends have been through transition. So I know Rob just moved, because we went to his "Housewarming party." And on that note.... Rob is not a drunk. He likes to take funny posed pictures. This one to the right is a POSED picture! So when Rob responded to my request for his new address, he signed off as "Official Co-guardian and lifelong groomsman." That just meant so much to me. Doug truly did find the best guy friends. Even though we all don't get to see each other that much, I am just happy to say that I have some loyal brothers in Christ.... to both Doug and me. It just all really means so much!

One last note, last night as I was working on some unfinished business from the wedding, I went on theknot.com. The counter said that Doug and I had been married for 150 days! WOHOO! So 150 days later, I am finally finishing up our wedding business. You will see a post about that in about a week. Im finally on break. I only have one more week of obligations, then its time to really finish up what Doug and I needed to say months ago (most of you probably know what I'm talking about.... and thank you for your patience). Lots of love to you all!

Hello Family and Friends,

We hope that this Sunday afternoon finds you all with many blessings. This afternoon Doug started off on a new venture. The next few months are going to be pretty tough, but Doug is always up for a challenge! I am so proud of his intelligence and determination. He has started a new program in the legal field. That is all that I am going to say for now. For those of you who know Doug, you know that he is an extremely private and personable man. He prefers to share the specifics of what he is up to in person. As his wife though, I would just like to say how proud I am of him, and ask that you keep his newest challenge in your prayers!

I entitled this blog "time goes by too fast" for many reasons. It's now the middle of July. I physically feel like it was just yesterday that Doug was traveling through Europe and I was so love sick for him to come home it hurt. So much has happened between that time and now. It seems like it was minutes ago that Doug asked me to marry him, and seconds ago that we tied the knot. Now I know that we have plenty of time, but there are moments that I would just like to savor, and make last for longer than the passing split second it goes by! Even if it as simple as a weekend, anniversary, birthday, vacation day, or whatever it may be.... everything goes by so quickly! Now, please don't take this as a complaint. All that I am saying is really, stop and notice what God has given to you. Today I am really mindful of that, and how quickly God's blessings come and go. When it comes down to it though, all I have to say is "THANK YOU GOD!"

Doug and I have been busy bee's lately. Since the 4th we have been busy at work. Summer school is nearly killing me. I have 9 more days left! I cannot wait for my little two week vacation! I will probably sit around and do absolutely nothing.... and I will love every second of it! Doug has been extremely supportive of me as I get ready for the new year. As many of you know, not much money is given to the schools, so often times we are left paying for a lot of things that help make a classroom successful. I am looking forward to the possibility of having my own classroom this year! I was told by the office that I have been assigned my own room, but with that said I must share a lesson the my current school district has taught me.... "Don't believe anything until you see it, and even then.... just wait." I am not bitter in any way, but I have found some interesting lessons as I have made my plunge into the so-called "real world." Everyone has their stories. I do need to say that mine are no where near as bad as most. I am thankful for that!

We got a chance to visit my parents last weekend. Nearly a year ago, Doug and I started to demolish their backyard. My dad has finally installed the last piece of rock, and my parents backyard is complete! My dad received some enormous help from some of the gentlemen in our church (Larry A. and Gary M). Something that Doug and I have in common with my parents is our love for HGTV. Their backyard project would be a good episode on HGTV. Doug and I both need to give them a huge hand of applause and say "JOB WELL DONE!" It was so relaxing to sit with them in the backyard. We bbqed and talked the day away. I am posting some pictures here for your enjoyment!

I hope that this Sunday doesnt pass by too quickly for you. May God richly and deeply bless you. Thank you for caring about our lives and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

I know it's the day after, but Doug and I hope that you all had a wonderful and blessed 4th of July! It's certainly awesome to know that we have this incredible freedom as Americans, and, of course, as redeemed children of God! :) So Happy 4th of July!

Our 4th of July has been fabulous. We got into Sacramento about 1:30 in the morning the night of the 3rd/early morning of the 4th. We are still in Sacramento. We are enjoying the pool, the sun, and eating our hearts out. This morning as Doug and I were laying on the Calamia's hammock, I looked over at all of the family and just thought "WOW I LOVE THIS FAMILY." I feel so blessed to be a part of their lives and share so many wonderful experiences with them. This is as tight knit as a family as they come! Seriously, we have been having the best time. We are incredibly tired from the drive. It's hard to recover from LA traffic...lol... but we are managing to find relaxing ways to deal with it up here. :)

We also just want to say THANK YOU to the Calamia's for hosting this amazing day. You always go above and beyond to take care of your family. No one ever leaves your house hungry. Lol. Thank you for taking care of us, loving us, and letting us lounge in your pool!

Coming from Southern California, we don't do too many fireworks. In fact, last year was the first year I had done my own fireworks. They are illegal where I grew up. The fireworks this year were awesome. The grand finale was one of the best that I have seen. I know that 4th of July will constantly be in our memories as very special!

It's a little weird to be "grown up." I was thinking back to this time last year. Doug had just graduated college, and his family was about to go on their Europe trip. We had the entire summer off. Now are are both working and trying to find time to rest. It's just crazy how quickly life can change. But, I wouldnt change it for the world. If I had to trade my married life for being back in college and having summers off, I'd rather work my butt off to get to experience all of these amazing times with my oh so handsome and wonderful hubby! :)

We took so many more pictures. You can check them out by copying and pasting the links at the end of this post. You need to check out the firework pictures.... awesome! Thank you again to the Calamias! :) We look forward to seeing everyone again at Kelly's camping trip. We love you all!


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2266679&l=6f2e7&id=3304510

Hello Family & Friends,

I am so sorry that is has been a while since I last wrote. Today Doug and I have officially been married for 4 months! I was just talking with a friend yesterday about how it feels like time is slipping away so quickly. I'm not just referring to the last 4 months when I say that. It's hard to believe that a year ago our lives were so incredibly different. I was still in my teaching program, Doug just graduated college and was about to take off for Europe, and we had no clue what God had in store for us then! We still have no clue what he has in store for us now, but we are blessed to figure it out together.

Work has been challenging for the both of us lately. Doug is certainly a trooper, as he really tries to perfect everything at his job. That is one of the reasons that I love him (of the many). He works so hard at everything he does. I am receiving a renewed sense of excitement for the coming school year. The teaching profession is so comedic. Most new teachers go in with the attitude that they can save the world and that every child deserves to get the best education possible. I still believe that. But, it is sad how many obstacles are thrown in the way of that idea, which often seems like an unattainable dream. For instance, I signed up to teach summer school. I walk in the first day and guess how many kids I have.... 50. Then they kept adding until I had 63. It's just insane. I finally have it down (as well as I possibly could). I just feel bad for the kids. They get cooped up in a small, hot room for four and a half hours. But, this has been a great experience for me. I am seeing some of my strengths and weaknesses and where I want to focus to help these kids! By the way, have any of you seen "The Secret Life of an American Teenager" on ABC Family. Molly Ringwald is in it. I watched the first episode last night. It was so trippy how part of that is my life (at work). SO TRIPPY. You should watch it and tell me what you think.

Doug and I are super excited about the 4th of July holiday. Of course, we are number 1 PROUD TO BE AMERICANS, and it's also the annual 4th of July celebration at the Calamia's in Sacramento. Doug's family (which is now my family... hehehehe) is so tightly knit. I feel honored to be a part of it. :) I'm just happy that this year I'm not balling my eyes out dreading leaving Doug for about a month. :) Thank GOD for the BONDS of marriage. :) Look forward to a recap on that fun and some pictures. It will be fun to have Steve come along with us as well! Doug, Jeff, Steve, and I are all going to be road trippin it up north. It should be good times.

Doug and I were able to go to a baseball game last night. I got a horrible stomach flu, so we were planning on going with a group of people, but that ended up changing. Other than that, Doug and I have been finding some fun things to do around town in Orange. We do fun things like go to (gross) Starbucks and play scrabble. Turn on the TV and listen to classical music and sit on the porch. We don't travel too much with the crazy economy! I just can't believe the price of gas, groceries and what not. I am sure a lot of you are laughing and saying "welcome to the real world." Doug and I both know the reality of the real world, but that doesn't stop it from being perplexing... no matter how short or long anyone has been in the real world. When challenges do come our way, we have been pretty good at handling them. Then again, we also do have THE BIG GUY on our side. You do have to check out this picture to the left. It got REALLY hot in Orange lately. We live in a very old 1920's craftsman house original. As cute as this little bungalow (or bugalow as we love to call it right now) is, it is VERY HOT. So after nights of restless sleep, Doug and I went and bought an airconditioner. I believe I mentioned this in our last post. Well check out this picture of how incredibly HUNKY my handyman husband is! I am one lucky girl!

Well we hope that you have a SAFE and HAPPY 4th of July! :) God bless American and GOD BLESS YOU!

Greetings in the middle of the night family and friends!

Well our good friend, Steve, is paying us a visit this evening. :) It has been WAAAAYYYY too long since he has last stayed over, so its nice to have him around. Im sure you all remember him from the wedding. He was one of our groomsmen. He was Doug's roommate senior year of college. Of course, other than me, he was Doug's best roommate! He has been the best friend to Doug and to me. We like to refer to him as our "wingman." This all stemmed from the convo he referred to in the speech he gave at the reception. We are thankful to have him. If any of you ever end up staying at our house overnight, just know that you are staying in his room. :) Lol.

Well it is that time.... I finally have uploaded almost all of the pictures to facebook. I am attaching a billion links. Just copy and paste them into a new url and you can see almost all of the pictures that Jonilyn Brown took. Jonilyn Brown is truly amazing. At a later date, I am going to be including some vendor information on a post. I need to be honest and say that I was so please with everything and everyone who helped us. :) You have already seen the AMAZING shots that Jacob Atmodjojo took. I am absolutely blown away by both of these photographers. :) I have memories to last me a lifetime.

Speaking of which.... today has been a super nostalgic day! Doug and I woke up very early and headed down to Huntington Beach. The June gloom lasted until about noon. We didnt even realize that we were there that long. We even got a little burnt today! OH NO! But we have been having the best weekend. We came home to our beautiful house. In the later evening Doug lit candles (from our wedding..hehe) and we listened to some classical music. One of the songs on the playlist was Canon in D. Of course, all if these emotions from the wedding came flooding back. As we were sitting in our beautiful bungalow, alone I was thinking "LORD I AM BLESSED!" My mom and I were having about an hour long conversation about the wedding, as she just got back from one of Julia's friend's bridal showers. :) So of course, that triggered the entire thing. A friend from college, Kelly O, is getting married very shortly! I know God is going to do big things in her and her fiance's life! Just reading her blog and her recent post on her bridal shower truly made me thankful for the experience that this wedding brought. But as Doug and I were sitting in our HOME this evening, I was overwhelmed with all of the emotions of the love that God has given us throughout our dating life, and more importantly, through our marriage. God has truly given us an amazing gift. :) So I wanted to title this blog "I wish you LOVE!" A while back my friend Holly Beeley sent out a forward with something to this extent. But as I was sitting near the warm embrace of my incredible husband, surrounded by soft lights, I said a short simple prayer for all of you out there. I asked the Lord to WISH you all LOVE. Especially right now I wish Kelly love. I wish Emma Love. I wish Nano/Lindsay love. :) The first two have a date coming up a lot sooner than Lindsay, but she has a BUSY year ahead of her! :) I wish all of you love out there. Really enjoy every moment of your lives... the good and bad. God has given us a gift. Though not everyone will find that same gift in a spouse, God does offer that love to everyone. I just praise HIM that I am able to experience a glimpse of it with my husband!

I really do wish all of you love! :) Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. :) Doug and I are thankful for all of you and love you all! :) Enjoy the pics (and if you notice the pic of me alone is from BEFORE the wedding! I have so many pics of the before wedding prep! This is at the bridal salon for my first fitting of my dress!!!! OH THE MEMORIES... but I digress). Good night! Sweet dreams!

THE LINKS:: If you want to view these, copy and paste these into a new window at the url spot. These are all the pictures from Jonilyn Brown!

Album Title: The wedding fun continues
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2256790&l=397d6&id=3304510

Album Title: More Wedding- More getting ready and start of ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2256853&l=bf020&id=3304510

Album Title: More, more more!- More getting ready
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257392&l=daf58&id=3304510

Album Title: The fun never ends- focus on the ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257511&l=c7070&id=3304510

Album Title: More of my faves:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257533&l=ef8f8&id=3304510

Album Title: The last album
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257533&l=ef8f8&id=3304510

Hello Family and Friends,

I am please to write to all of you that we have received our pictures from Jonilyn Brown. She is so amazing! I am absolutely in love with the pictures she took. I just cant step away from them! I am going to include some "teasers" of what she took. She certainly did take a lot, so it will take me a while to make a facebook album so you can see all of them, but enjoy this for now! :) I am just so excited!!!!!!!

If any of you are in search of a good photographer, I have both Jonilyn and Jacob's contact info. I have to say honestly, as I was looking at Jonilyn's pictures I felt all of the excitement of the wedding rush back to me! She caught so many of the intimate moments that I loved that day! If you are searching out a GREAT photographer, go for Jonilyn. Thank you Jonilyn for capturing the most important moments of our special day. You have some unbelievable talent and we are blessed to have you! Seriously everyone, I am a big fan of Jonilyn. He pictures get better each time you click on her blog! If you dont believe me, watch over a couple of weeks. You would be AMAZED. I hope some random bride-to-be in the Los Angeles/Orange County area stumbles across this and finds Jonilyn. She is truly a one of a kind photographer. If you click on Jonilyn's name, it will take you directly to her website. I am personally a fan of course blog. Basically, I stalk it everyday to see what she is up to next. If you want to go there, click on Jonilyn Brown. If you prefer to type these in manually, her website is jonilynphotography.com and her blog is jonilynphotographyblog.com. Check her out!

Well this week was a rather "tough" one. While I love my students a lot, the school year seems to be dragging. They are already on vacation, so its like pulling teeth to get them to do the work they NEED to do for the next 8 days! Doug had his finals for his classes at UCI. Needless to say, with this week ending, we are both so happy for the little break that he has from his classes. I miss him when he is gone.

We hope you all enjoy the pictures! Check back periodically. I am going to be adding facebook albums so you can see the entire thing.

Thank you again to EVERYONE who made our wedding day so special. As you can see, I relive it daily! :) We love you all so much, and count ourselves blessed to have you in our lives!

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this finds you happy and well. Time.... such an abstract concept! Lol. It's hard to believe that it's been 3 months since Doug and I have been married. I feel like March 2nd was so long ago, but in reality, 3 months is so short! We don't have too much to report on this our 3rd month anniversary. Doug and I finally feel like we have some kind of stability. It is such a nice feeling. I do need to interject here what an amazing husband Doug truly is. HE helped me DEEP CLEAN THE HOUSE YESTERDAY! Yesterday was our "spring cleaning" day. Boy am I thankful to him. As lovely as our little bungalow is, it gets SOOO dusty and dirty so quickly. It doesnt matter how many times we sweep or dust, it piles up. So Doug, being my hero, gets down on his hands and knees and scrubs the whole house! Wow.... whoever said that women need to train their husbands need to think twice!

Doug is going to roll his eyes when he reads this. He and I both got this INCREDIBLY adorable e-mail from his mom on our 1 month anniversary wishing us a happy one month marriage anniversary. His reply to me about that was "Oh you women." Lol. Doug isnt too fond of the little anniversaries. I find it humorous to goad him on and say "HAPPY SUCH AND SUCH ANNIVERSARY BABY." This morning when we woke up and had our lovely morning coffee and breakfast I got this HUGE smile on my face and said "HAPPY 3 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!" He had that same adorable face that he has had every time I would say something like that when we were dating. Some things never change. But through it all, the changes, the constants, and time passing by, I can honestly say that I am blessed to have found the love of my life. God is truly smiling upon us. I wish you all the happiness that God has given to us. So HAPPY 3 MONTHS! :) lol. Laugh, smile, live, love.... GOD IS GOOD!

Ps. This picture was from our honeymoon at the cutest little candy shop in Calistoga. It just goes to show how SWEET life is!