Snow thoughts.

I am currently sitting in the office in our house. Junie B. is snuggled down in my lap covered in her blankey (that dog isn't spoiled is she?) The snow is STILL falling outside the window next to my desk and i keep thinking about going to make a cup of coffee but its 4:16 pm and i think Junie will be wild if i wake her up. Daniel hooked up in speakers in the office this morning in our cleaning frenzy so i am listening to the CD Sing Over Me (GET THIS CD!!) so good.

I should be working harder on these Thank-Yous from our wedding (okay, dont judge me. We got married right in the middle of the holiday season and i have been a very busy girl!) I keep thinking of the blog Brett Baker did right after she got married entitled "pooped penman"..or maybe that was just the tag..i cant remember. Anyway, i am VERY MUCH SO relating to her blog. The Thank Yous never end! I think it partially takes me forever because i feel a strong obligation to fill the card at least on one side. i mean these are friends and family. i should have a lot to say! Anyway, i am breaking from writing to type. Daniel is upstairs painting the bathroom..thank the Lord for a husband who can do it all!

Daniel woke up at 6 am to get out on HIS favorite day of the year. What? the day AFTER Christmas? Who likes THAT day? You see, the day after Christmas all the Christmas lights and stuff goes massively on sale. and Daniel is so first in line. I woke up to Daniel standing over me smiling and giving me the lowdown on Junies Bathroom activities.. ie: i took her out and she did two pees and one poop." ( i know. i told daniel you know you're an old married couple when you start the day off telling each other what the dog did outside.) By this point Junie is already back in the bed under the covers because obviously it is the warmest spot in the house. Daniel slips out so quick i only realize he's gone when i get the text that he is going crazy at Garden Ridge,lol. So now we have TONS of Christmas lights and Daniel is already planning how he is going to deck the house out next year. Hey, before i forget. Your invited to our house next Christmas. really. You're going to want to see the lights, lol.

I hope you had a beautiful Christmas! Being married def makes Christmas more fun! Daniel and I were like little kids again waking up at 5 am (much to Junie's delight seeing how she usually has to lay in bed until 6). During our Christmas tradition (after everything is done and the day is settled we open a bottle of sparkling cider and enjoy the last minutes of Christmas day) Daniel called it "Believers Juice" to which we both laughed and laughed..and i still think that was funny,lol. Christian humor for you.lol. We toasted to our new beginning as our first married Christmas, our 6th Christmas together and to a Savior who has truly been abundantly generous to us. May we live lives painfully generous to those around us who have not yet understood the generosity of a Savior who died a murderers death upon the cross to save us.
Merry Christmas.

Leslie

Marriage,Junie B., and Life.

From the movie Princess Diaries, "Busy, Busy..DIZZY." I often think of blogging, but at the end of the day it suddenly becomes less important.lol

Tuesday will mark a full month being married..REALLY!?! Where did time go? It seems like just yesterday when i walked in my apartment to see my roommates (and consequently interrupted their movie) to squeal that i was engaged!! And now, ive been MARRIED a month!? wow. Everyone told me that the wedding day would fly by, but sheesh it really FLEW by. My wedding day was everything and more i could have wanted and marriage is even better! Our honeymoon in St. Thomas was beautiful but we were ready to get back to our home! Here are some of our favorite pictures.








to update you:

Daniel got the Christmas bug as soon as we got home and bought a christmas tree (that he put 2500 lights on). One of the major bonus' to marrying Daniel is his true Christmas talent. Im not kidding here people. You should see our Christmas tree, it's beautiful! Also the neighbors are loving the massive tree Daniel did outside...and ill be honest, it looks great! Plus, i love Christmas so it's really easy to get into the spirit with Daniel.

Secondly, Daniel came home the other night and said do you want your Christmas gift now or later. You should know at this point that both Daniel and i cannot keep a surprise. Of course at first i told him i wanted to wait. He had that face. you know that face that his smile is about to explode and the surprise is so good i'll def want it now. yea, THAT face. So i did what any girl would. I said, " OH FINE ILL HAVE IT NOW!" Needless to say, Daniel said he went to visit our PUPPY!!! We got to pick Junie B. Ram Pendergrass up on Thanksgiving day! Here she is:




(i know, have you ever seen anything that cute?! And Junie is precious too!)

Junie B. is quite possibly the cutest dog ever. She is already spoiled and thinks she owns the house. As frustrated as she makes us some days, there is nothing better to coming home to a little puppy who attacks you with kisses and goes crazy just because you walked in the door. I love her and she is Def. one of the best gifts i have ever gotten!

For the first time in our marriage Daniel is out of town with work. He is in Maine. I am in Richmond. lame. It's funny how you can sleep in a big bed your whole life and feel like it is perfect. Get married and sleep just one night alone and suddenly you are in a bed far to large for you. I felt like Daniel's side was eternally long. Here is a picture i drew so you could understand what i mean. of course, this is the most accurate i could be using paint.



Yes, in case you were wondering Junie does sleep in the bed...but she buries herself down under all the sheets right near our legs. So really, she is in the picture, but you cant see her under the covers. As i lay down in bed, Junie B. at my knees, the left side of the bed eternally long clearly missing someone, This song came to mind.

(Nichole Nordeman: You are Good.)


The Good Lord, has blessed me so well. This is such a wonderful season of my life, and even with my guy gone, i cant help but feel immeasurably blessed. Oh, how he has given us so much more than we deserve...
May this season be just that for you too. A season of gratitude.

Leslie

Growing old, but not quite growing up

There is a song called "Waiting" by the fabulous Matt Wertz. I was laying out at the beach today listening to shuffle on my ipod (something i hardly ever do because i memorize the play sequence and subconsciously like to hum the next song right before it starts). Anyway, this great song has a chorus to it that plays like this:

"Growing old. Growing old, but not quite growing up."

I have probably listened to this song 100 times but today that line really struck me. I think right now, that is EXACTLY how i feel. In the last month i cant even begin to tell you how many people have told me something along these line, " WOW! you are like a real adult!" or "sheesh all grown up now!" It's funny because until someone says that i never really think about it.

here are the raw facts.

1. in two months i am get married (something i am totally ready for)
2. we just bought a house. a real one. with real walls to paint and real things to fix.
3. i have a full time job using my degree that i spent 4 years getting..who does that!?

Now, these things hold real responsibilities. the kind at 22 i sometimes wonder if i am capable of handling.
But all these thoughts collide with a crazy thing that happened the other night. I was having this terrible dream (i knew eating that lobster crabcake would have consequences) and woke up in a frenzy. Out of no where i told the Lord i needed help cause i wanted to do things right!!! (i vaguely remember saying this loudly too) and just like..peace. and i went right back to sleep only to awake acutely aware of my night outburst.

see, cause really i think no matter how old i get..i probably wont ever feel like im the grown up i should be. i think that's a good place to be though. I want the Lord to guide my steps and make my decisions. Dont get me wrong, i want to be someone who carries responsibility and embraces the new and beautiful (and scary) steps in my life. But i also want to be someone who says (even if its in a delirious state of half asleep mind), Lord, i wanna do things right!

and how do i do things right?

Proverbs 2:3-6
"Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver, seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding."


So here's to growing old..but not quite growing up.

-Leslie

September.

Today is the firs of September. This means that suddenly this will be the first blog on my page! yehaw! (i dont know why i just typed yehaw, i never say that. lol)




Here is what i am looking forward to this month.
1. Going to the beach with my parentals. hey, we live for family vacas around here.
2. Getting really tan from laying at the beach
3. Reading all the books i have saved specifically for one week at the beach. and yes, i will finish them all!
4. Learning more about my job..feeling less lost every day.
5. Linny is coming to visit this month! woohoo! i really miss sharing a room..and more importantly a life with her. This is going to be a very special weekend.
6. Going for my fitting for my dress. and Linny will be here to see it! Feeling kinda nervous about this but i think that it's the excited kind of nervous.
7. A joint shower with Daniel (i should clarify that this is a wedding shower..you know, the party kind. Just so the previous sentence doesn't sound shady.)
8. Meeting Greg and Sara for marriage counseling and Greg's famous "words of wisdom"
9. Closing on our house!! Sept 27th! Feeling like a true homeowner.
10. Daniel giving me free rein to pick our the paint colors for the house. i love that man. hopefully he still loves me after he sees my choices,lol.
11. cooler weather-i love fall!
12. Everyone starting school except for me and daniel..this might just be my favorite thing about September
13. Considering September still "summer" so Daniel and i have an excuse to go get icecream every night.
14. 2 months until we get married...woah! talk about time flying!
15. fall clothes. because, really, summer clothes only look good with a great tan..otherwise they look totally putrid. i prefer flannel shirts and jeans any day, and plus, my natural color, pasty white, looks better in them!

Yay for September!

So what are your thoughts about September!?

-Leslie

bug fixed!!

My plans to blog much of my summer have backfired. I will say however, in my defense the blogger has been going crazy and not letting me post a new blog. FINALLY today, it suddenly let me make a new post. so relax, this is going to be a long one!

My summer started with a few weeks working MFUGE in Charleston, SC. Because I am getting married, and basically needed to find a real job, I couldn’t commit to doing another entire summer at camp. FUGE has this great thing called “special-teamers” which means during really huge weeks they have past staffers who can’t work a whole summer, work during those weeks. It was so good, so different, and so HOT. (Charleston seriously has got to be the hottest place on earth..the humidity..ugh!) It was really good being back to what really became a home to me last summer. I missed seeing our ’09 staff there but was able to work again with some sweet friends. It is such a different thing being there only for a few weeks, but the team really welcomed me in just like I had been there all along. I was really able to see the Lord working in my life and took a step back while I was there to really understand why he had me where he has me. (if that makes any sense). I found myself back at the old P.C.Y (painting, construction, yardwork) shed..rememered why I hated it so much last year. This summer was so different with my site because instead of moving from yard to yard, location to location, I worked both weeks at a kids camp. My students and I painted so much I was sick of seeing paint for a while. All in all a great experience to which I was totally wiped and ready to go home and rest. Here are some pics from the 2 weeks.









2. Event two of the summer included flying to Kentucky to visit my sweet friend Emily! We spent the week painting and fixing up her new house (which is fabulous by the way). This was actually the first time I had ever flown by myself so I was a teensy nervous, however I got where I needed to be and everything worked out great. My friend Katie recued me from the Nashville airport since Emily was so far from Nashville (Katie I still owe you for this!). Also shoutout to Megan who pulled an all-nighter with me and got me to the airport at 4:45 in the morning..a terrible idea to stay up all night, but we had a fun time! Seeing as it was the 4th of July Emily and drove back to Cunningham Kentucky and basically got our own personal firework show as we could see all the firework shows from the highway. We worked so hard on the house but were able to finish everything just in time for Brian (Emily’s husband) to get home! We also had cheeseburgers at a little store ( im not sure what you call it,lol) where I promptly bought EEJ a snake that was a sucker and we laughed very hard about that. We stayed up excessively late every night and chatted which was sooo good. I slept for a full 20 hours when I got home I was so tired..but it was SO worth it! This was such a special week in my life. The Lord really works in mysterious ways..







3. Event three is really like 10 events in one. This is what happened when i got home from Kentucky. I first got a call that the wedding dress designer of the dress i wanted had gone out of businesses..which left me without a dress 4 months out. a minor crisis however i resolved to just figure out a plan and not stress out because as we all know it cannot add a moment to my life. there are times when the Lord gives you such clarity it is unreal. that happened. Then i got a call that i got the job i applied for. This was largely a shocker because i am grossly unqualified for this job yet the Lord saw fit to place me there. So i am now officially working with mental heath support in an agency i have already grown to respect. It is such a stretch for me but i know the Lord has me there and i am content with that knowledge. And hey, what better way to lean on the Lord's abilities when there isn't an ounce of your own! Then Jen came and spent a day with me which was fun especially because we went to Shortpump to this outdoor concert which we thought it was so awesome that everyone had these seats placed for us until our bubble burst when that lovely couple told us they would like there seats back...opps! so i guess it wasn't free seats after all. Then because i started my job i couldn't join the girls on their beach day so Sarah swung by and had dinner with me..which was sooo good! We have always had great conversation. Then Daniel and i found a house, put an offer on it and boom, as of September when the house closes we are homeowners. Anddd..i love the house! Honestly, it is exactly what i wanted. Daniel did such a great job, and basically everyday i realize how smart he is and how incredibly thankful i am that he is such a good steward of his money and so wise with investments. This is further proof that the Lord truly does meet and exceed our needs. Then daniel and i went to a beautiful wedding on the beach where we drove home jiffy quick (err..rather tried but got tied up in excessive traffic) and scrambled to get our act together just in time to FINALLY get engagement pictures done. Which, in case you haven't checked out the album on Facebook..turned out AMAZING. i honestly couldn't be more happy with the great job Sara did. ANDDD Daniel and i had a great time taking them. Sara, you are a genius. thank you a million times over!! Most recently this weekend i had my wisdom teeth out. Actually i only have 2 wisdom teeth. I know, kinda weird. its not like the other two are there but dont need to be removed, i just dont have the other two. no seriously, i saw the x-ray. nothing. so odd. anyway, i am swollen and not exactly loving life however glad to mark one more thing off my list. Oh and in case you were wondering, i found the dress. not just a dress, the one i wanted from the beginning. its a long story but i found one, bought it and am having it altered as we speak. pth. put nothing past a woman on a mission who is willing to take a moment to not freak out. done and done.

whew. i think that's it. Basically things have been really uneventful this summer...lol











next time not so long!
-Leslie

Gidget

A picture lays beside me. Its an old one, in fact I looked on the back of it and it was taken December 2002. It was a Christmas gift to Diana and I..one my parents built up for weeks. Not exactly the kind of gift we expected, but one we loved nonetheless. That December my parents took our dog Gidget to see Santa Clause. The gift happens to be the picture sitting next to me. Gidget is wearing a big red bow and is snuggled up next to Santa. It might just be the cutest thing you have ever seen.

            I was ten years old when we went to the Vet to look at a rescue dog. Ironically, it was just about this time in the summer, and my sister was away on a mission trip with church. My parents insisted we were just going to “look” at her as a favor to a friend who had asked my mom to come down. We walked in and Gidget did her beg where she stood on her back legs and waved her little paws at you..and that was it. We took her home. She was a 3 year old fur ball who you loved the minute you saw her.

            That dog got into more trouble than I can even begin to tell. She had the biggest sweet tooth and a curiosity that got her more than one summons to the laundry room (where inevitably someone in my family would feel bad and go rescue her after 5 minutes) ill never forget the time I left a bag of cooking chocolate out and my sister and I came home to the entire bag emptied….and Gidget as fat as a pig. She had eaten the entire bag and it had bloated her stomach. Of course she got sick everywhere and we had to call the Vet and nurse her. And honestly, I swear I think that dog was smiling, pleased that she had eaten that whole bag. Then there was the time she ate a whole box of girl scout cookies my mom made the mistake of leaving out. We knew something was wrong when we came home and she was running around the house like a manic..then we saw the wrappers, licked clean I might add. Most recently we came home and she greeted us to the door with an orange face…which my mom later discovered was a cake mix she had found…and eaten. By far my favorite was the time she got the Christmas cookies. My entire life my mom has made Christmas cookies a few days before all the family comes over. She would bake them and them place them in Tupperware boxes in the other room. Gidget was at her heels all day watching her bake then put them in the Tupperware boxes. After figuring out where the cookies were stored and having watched my mom open them she somehow figured out how to open the box. When my mom turned around Gidget was trotting through the hallway with a huge chocolate chip cookie in her mouth until my mom yelled DROP IT from the other room where she promptly dropped her treasure..but not without licking it a few good times. We weren’t even mad at her…I mean to this day it is still a mystery as to how she figured out how to open the box.

            It wasn’t just trouble she got into. She loved our family. For twelve years she greeted each and every person who walked through the door. She licked my face when I was in middle school and was crying because once again I didn’t make the basketball team. She stood on my dad every Saturday morning until he woke up and took her for a ride in the truck. She scratched Diana’s door until she would finally wake up and put her in bed with her in the mornings. She held a loyalty to mom because she spoiled her rotten, always bringing home a new collar for every season. She sensed when someone was upset and was always ready to curl right up next to you. She would pout around the house when we were packing for vacation and refused to give anyone a lick when we dropped her off at “summer camp” or the Vet. She made us laugh, and even angry ( like the first Christmas we had her and she was so thrilled a tree was inside she decided to leave a “present” under it.) But we loved her.

            Friday was the day I never saw coming. She was old and after trying for years to keep her going her organs finally began to give. We had to put her down.  If there was a single thing left to do we would have. I can say with complete certainty that it was the hardest day of my life. The nurses and Vets came in and cried with us. The groomer who has cut her hair for years came too.. she loved Gidget. So many people there loved her and grieved with us. I will never forget it.

She is just a dog. But she was our dog and we loved her. The sorrow hits in waves when you come home and no one is there to greet you. You call her or look for her simply out of habit before suddenly remembering. She truly was a member of our family.

            I miss that dog.

        But I remain with one repeating thought through it all…

“Lord, may I be burdened for people who do not know you. May it grieve my heart far more for those who die without hope of eternity than it does the loss of my beloved dog.”

May I be willing to take more than just good from your hands.

 (so cute in her dress)

(Tired of wearing the dress..)

             (snoozing in my room) (her sleeping bag )

(trying to get a raisin when i wasnt looking)(wearing her nightgown ready for bed) (begging for a treat..)(wearing her Christmas bandana) (her younger years)

 (her last car ride this past Monday)

-Leslie

words from pop

I am finally home and it has officially been a week since I graduated college. This week has been a whirlwind and i find myself surprised at how fast it has gone by. Little update on my life-
i am officially "graduated-out." That means that i have been to enough ceremonies to hold me for quite some time. Daniel graduated this weekend. Because VCU is so huge (or at least i think that's why) they have to have tons of different individual department graduation times. So that meant that Daniel graduated in his individual engineer ceremony of Friday night then in the official one Saturday morning. It was really crazy to see him walk and get his diploma..i cant even explain how hard he has worked for that piece of paper..how many nights i heard him recite equations and words i did not understand..how many 3 am text he sent to let me know he was still studying..how many times i told him he was not going to die and would pass the class/test/quiz/project/senior design. All i have to say is. " adieu, adios, arrivederci, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, bye, bye-bye, cheerio, good-bye, goodbye, good day, sayonara, later, peace, SO LONG 

yes. we were both happy. lol. I am proud of Daniel, and i love him because he sets his eyes on a goal and works hard when the rest of us would give up to see it accomplished. i think i can learn from that. 
He pushes me to do things i dont feel capable and gives me no option but to set my goals as high as his. 


My dad stood proudly outside after Daniel's graduation and told me 
   "You and Daniel have the world in your hands. There is nothing that can stop you from doing great things. You can never understand how blessed you are because of that."


Words that hit me in reflection. There is only one thing that can stop us from doing great things-and that is doing them in our own power. We are only as much as we are at His feet. PTL.


Psalm 27:4


"One thing I have desired of the LORD,
         That will I seek:
         That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
         All the days of my life,
         To behold the beauty of the LORD,
         And to inquire in His temple."

Final Day-GRADUATION

Well, obviously this is a day late, and because the day was so insane, i am almost 2 days late. The day had finally arrived..
GRADUATION! The morning came sooner than i wanted..maybe that is because i had to wake up at 5:45 am..geesh. Even though it was wicked early i wasn't tired because i knew it was about to be a great day. I got ready and made sure i timed the morning perfectly...i knew exactly what time Linny's (spellcheck is trying to tell me Linny's name should be Ninny..which is making me giggle.)  alarm was going off so i made sure to sit at my computer and be ready. You see for the past three years i have shared a room with her. And our beds have always been beside each others. And although it will be surprising, her hair is well...beautiful in the mornings. So i would frequently play "Good Morning Beautiful" really loud as she was waking up. This year has been so crazy so i haven't gotten many chances to play it but i knew this was our last morning as roommates and i had to make it count. So as she started waking...GOOD MORNING BEAUTIFUL, HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT, MINE WAS WONDERFUL WITH YOU BY MY SIDE!!!!!!!! ( i was yelling. and i also got it on video,lol) Linny LOVED it. she will miss me. lol. I also had all the girls give me a segment for my video that i am putting together.
We had to be on the field at 7:30 am (so we could wait to go to the football field at 8:45) But actually it wasn't terrible because we were able to take lots of pics with friends. We finally got on the football field, but im not even kidding by that point i was already sweating. It was like a 100 degrees in that black gown and we were packed like sardines on the field. The ceremony was really nice and it was hard not to get emotional about how much i have been blessed by the last four years of college.

After the ceremony the girls and I had all our families in town so we rented the church pavilion and cooked out the rest of the afternoon. It was a really nice time to just hang out with our families and celebrate the fabulous day. We had a few corn-hole tournaments and Daniel and I whopped Lindsay and Matthew (well..almost.lol). It was really nice to be able to combine my two world (my home with Daniel and my parents) and my school life with the girls. We had such a great time and i was literally wiped by the end of the day. Daniel and i drove home and talked about our future and the excitement of things to come. As sad as it is to leave the girls (and trust me, it's a much harder thing than i can even express) im so thankful that the Lord is bringing about new and exciting things for me. I look forward to those new times with the girls. new and old combine!

 I think that so many people get a degree, make some friends, and have fun, and that is the extent of their time. my college time has been one of the richest times in my life. i didn't just get an education, i learned that fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I didn't just make friends, i met my best friends who have loved and encouraged me at every step. I didn't just have fun, i grew in character and as a person. And it's ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS. I believe in the work Dr. Falwell started and couldn't have had a better college experience. I am not left without a deep sense of gratitude for what the Lord has done in my life during my college years. Linny, Lib, Pookie, Sarah. You've made all the difference. next time..my wedding! Miss you girls already!

Leslie