Our First House

I wanted to wait until this summer, when we were about to move to Tunica, to blog about our first home- mainly because I wanted to have a reason to be all emotional and sentimental. I guess now is as good as time as ever though! 

We looovvveee our house! Not just because it is our house, but because it is exactly what we need- nothing more, nothing less. We wish we could just take our house to Tunica with us, but, alas, that is not possible. 

Let me walk you through....

When you pull into our subdivision, Keystone Cottages, you will find our house- number 40.

When you walk into our house, you pretty much see the half of the entire house. Our house is only 600 square feet, but like I said- it is exactly what we need!

Our living room and our kitchen are kind of one room, and I honestly love it that way. The only thing I would change is a place to put a dining room table. Needless to say, we have gotten a lot of use out of our TV trays!

Our laundry room is off to the side of our kitchen. One of the bonuses of renting in a college town- ALL appliances were included with the house.

Off from the living room is our master bedroom (and the only bedroom in the house).

Off of the bedroom is our one bathroom with our huge (at least to us) walk-in closet.

Needless to say, we love this house. I have told Landon multiple times within the past few weeks that I am going to shed a couple tears when we have to move. I'll enjoy the last few months we have left in it!

Landons Birthday

We were lucky this year to be able to celebrate Landon's birthday the entire weekend this year! That is a benefit of being married and having birthdays :)

Friday, I surprised Landon with an overnight trip to downtown Memphis. When he came home from his internship, his bags were packed and his clothes were ready for him to put on for our night out on the town.

We checked into our hotel, Hampton Suites on Beale St, before we went out to dinner. The hotel was SOO nice!! Shout out to my dad for helping us land a great deal!

After we checked into our hotel we went to eat at Bluefin and stopped and got some dessert at Starbucks! I seriously recommend Bluefin to anyone- good food and GREAT atmosphere!

Saturday we started out our morning with a drive around Harbor Town in Memphis- seriously one of the cutest places on earth! We went shopping and got him some very cool clothes. We also spent sometime in Guitar Center and eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A.

Sunday, he lead worship at church and his parents surprised him by coming to see him. We went to their house for a birthday lunch. It was soo good to see our family!

He finished off his birthday weekend with.... homework. Boo!

But we had a wonderful weekend together!

Marriage Retreat

So a couple of weekends ago, on February 17th and 18th to be exact, our church held a marriage conference for any couple that wanted to sign up. It was soo much fun and I can't wait until next year when they have it again. We had it at Comfort Suites in Southaven (very nice facilities and friendly staff!) Friday night and Saturday until noon. 

Our church believes in the biblical role of marriages in families and families as the basis of our church. We were thankful that Curt Liles (TheLife Oxford) and Eric Hankins (First Baptist Oxford) were able to come speak truth into our  lives on biblical marriage. Some of the points that I am still chewing on today, a month later:

1. My husband has a HUGE responsibility to love me and our future kids as Christ loves the Church... no pressure. 

2. As a wife and a future mother, I can't be manipulative and raise my children on a battle field. Small battles become big wars... Nothing is worth the destruction of our marriage.

3. My value and worth, as a wife, comes first and foremost from Jesus.

4. I can not be selfish and self-seeking, but rather I need to be servant hearted.

5. I have to be reminded of who I was in sin, and who I am now in Christ and not live be the flesh, but rather by the Spirit... DAILY!

Some fun pictures from the weekend...

Late night run to Steak N Shake with my hubs!

Thankful for my marriage to seriously the most selfless, funny, and godly man I know!

Casey and Mitzie Fitzgerald

Brandy Barrett

While I couldn't possibly get pictures with all the wonderful couples there, here are a few! Both Casey and Brandy serve faithfully on the praise team with Landon!

Btw, we won a Malco and Red Lobster gift card- score!!!!

And Hunter and Hilary won the grand prize... a very awkward story by Bill Murdock.

V-Day

So now that Spring Break is finally here, I actually have time to sit down and blog. Some of these blogs go back to happenings a month ago, but at least I am getting them on here!

Our first Valentines Day together was special for us because not only was it our first one together as a married couple, but our first one together as anything but boyfriend/girlfriend!

Landon got me these beautiful flowers. I know it might be cliche but i LOVE flowers!! 

We did not want to fight the crowds, so we just stayed home and enjoyed a relaxing, quiet evening.

My husband made me a sweet coupon book, redeemable at anytime. They all had to do with stuff I liked... "One free movie night" , "One Ice Cream date to Twisters or Ya-Yas" , "One free picnic date"., etc.

I gave him grilling accessories, which he uses all the time :)

We cooked Shrimp Alfredo for dinner and had chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream for dessert. The Alfredo was DELICIOUS, but we can't do it a lot because it is expensive. 

So besides the fact that I almost burned our house down when I was trying to pull the garlic bread out of the oven, our first Valentines Day was a success!!

Story of our Engagment

So, this day, a year ago, Landon Brewer asked me to be his wife. I have never actually sat down and written out our engagement story, so this is exciting for me. So, where to start the story?...

First of all, Landon and I dated for 3 years when we were seriously talking about wanting to get married. The only problem was he didn't have a job.I am thankful for the man he is because he would not allow me to really entertain the thought of getting married because he did not have a way to provide for me. He search for a job for 6 months to no avail. I wanted to share this song because this song really got me through this time in trusting the Lord wholeheartedly. I knew the Lord was for me and all his plans were HIS best for me.

So on a side note, our friends Kenna and Andrew were ears and encouragement for us. She was trying to be funny one day in December and told me that February 19th was going to be a big day for us. She had no idea what was going on that day. She just pulled that date out of the thin air. 

Fast forward to about about February 15, 2011. It was a tuesday night and I had to work, so Landon told me he went to BSU to "listen" to Andrew speak, but really he went to his parents house to talk to them about asking me to marry him the following Saturday. They talked it through and he left still questioning. I had no idea he went to talk to them, but I do remember him coming home and him seriously telling me he wanted to get married so bad but he didn't know he if we could anytime soon. However, throughout the next couple of days he got a job, but he didnt tell me about it. He went home for the weekend to "spend time with his parents".

Really, he was buying me a ring and talking to my parents.

Saturday, February 19, 2011, I was working at Chick-fil-A and got off work at 4pm. We were supposed to be going to Jay and Jennifer Adkins house just to spend time with them. Random, but I thought it was strange that day that he text me like 4 times to make sure I got off a 4pm. When 4 came around he text me about told me he wasn't quite packed and ready to go, so to go ahead and go to my apartment and get my stuff together. I changed into normal clothes, which I am glad I did, because I would have been upset with myself if I got proposed to in my CFA uniform. 

He text me about 10 min later and told me he was ready and there was a surprise on his door for me. The surprise was an envelope with my name on it. Because he is a graphic designer, he made a wedding invitation for us. 

I seriously couldn't believe it. I opened the cracked door to find a red carpet, daisies (my favorite flower), and candles.

'

When I turned the corner, my sweet boyfriend at the time was sitting there playing me "Marry Me" by Train. 

You can listen to it above. It was the sweetest thing ever. I had always wanted him to sing me a song when were dating, but he was saving it for a moment like that.

He was soo nervous when he was playing. He was trembling as he was singing, but it was the sweetest thing I have ever heard besides the words "I Do". 

So needless to say, I got this beautiful ring.

I was sooooooo excited. I called and text everyone I knew.

We did end up going to Jay and Jennifers and spend our engagement night with them!!

Friends, Adopted for Life, & More

So its about time I update this thing. Nothing life changing or life altering has occurred, but just wanted to jot down some sweet memories I want to remember.

1. I started student teaching at Water Valley High School about two and a half weeks ago. So far so good. I have been able to teach a couple of days and the kids (not really kids, they are 11th and 12th graders!) pay attention and participate, so I take that as a success. I think it is hard for them to grasp that I am so close in age to them, but i know how to use my "mommy" look! I use it quite often. The other day, I was able to have some one on one tutoring time with a student who was having boyfriend issues, so I was thankful I was able to be there for her. Also my carpoorling buddy, Cheslin Clemons, is fun and I have enjoyed getting to know her!

2. Landon and I have some AMAZING friends. Seriously, we couldn't ask for better ones. Two weekends ago, each night we got to hang out with a different couple. All eight of us a seriously good friends,but we couldn't all seem to get together at one time.

Friday night- We hung out with Matt and Haley. Cooked deersteak, played Phase10, watched the boys play Zelda, and shared lots of laughter and eye rolling!

Saturday Night- JDub and Amber- This was a spur the moment decision, but so glad we did it. We drove up to Hernando and ate with them and JDub's parents. Our night was full of conversations about wedding planning and Jesus. Amber also asked me to be a bridesmaid, so I'm pretty pumped!

Sunday Night- We had hamburgers and hung out with Andrew and Kenna! Fun times! The NEXT Saturday we hung out with them again and had hamburgers again, ate at Ya-Ya's, and played Sorry! while we watched Boy Meets World!

Kenna was so thoughtful and got us a book about Chicago (we are taking a trip there in the summer) and a Milka candybar (reminds me of our time in Budapest!).

We are very thankful to these couple friends (and MANY others) in our life. I seriously thank God  daily for the friendships He has blessed us with!

3. Landon and I went to the Adopted for Life conference this past weekend. Dr. Russell Moore spoke about the doctrine of adoption and our role as the church to care for the orphans. We went with the intention of just getting familiar with the adoption process. We aren't adopting for a couple of years, but because we want to adopt internationally, we wanted to see how it all worked. My heart got a little broken because apparently you can't start the adoption process from China until you are 30! I just don't want to wait so long to get our precious child, but I know the Lord will work ALL that out and already has!

A few things I was reminded this weekend:

1. All God's people have an obligation (and joy!) to care for orphans. That doesn't necessarily mean everyone is called to adopt or foster, but we all must play a role in caring for orphans. I was reminded that I have a role to care for the orphans in a different way until I can carry out what I feel like is our ultimate way of caring for the orphans, adopting one! God has saved us from the chaos of our own lives!

2. I must remember my own adoption into the family of God to truly understand the physical adoption of a child. How often I reach back to my own orphanage of my flesh!

3. The whole point of caring for orphans is to count others as more important than ourselves.

4. Love brings with it risk. I have friends that have risked a lot to care for a child, but wouldn't trade it for the world! The Lord has given us the desire to adopt, so I know he will work out all those details in his timing!

Shout out to Matt, Megan, and Gideon for letting us crash at your house this weekend. We had so much fun!