Big Changes!

Well, the last time I posted, I was telling you all about our beautiful wedding day. That was the most memorable and most exciting day of my life. My friend, Chelsea, recently went through everything she remembers, and I will do that soon. I want to be able to remember every little detail!



But, come March 23, I believe that the title of "most exciting day" will be stolen!

This is the new addition to our family. I am 10 weeks pregnant, and I am still so in awe that I am now crying as I type this post. Here is the story:

Back in June, Blake and I had decided that it was time for us to completely rely on the Lord as to when we were to have a baby. We had talked about it and prayed, and we both felt comfortable with letting God take over (I know...it really doesn't matter that we were comfortable with it...God is so sweet to let us get there!).

Well, God was ready for us to have a baby. By mid-July, I knew something was different. I had lots of weird things happening with my body, and I was beginning to feel suspicious. I did some research, and sure enough EVERY symptom I had was listed under "Early Symptoms of Pregnancy."

I had set up an appointment with my lady doctor for the 17th, so I knew we would find out then. I had told Blake about my symptoms, but no one else knew. I knew we would both want to tell our families, and that we would want to know for sure before we said anything. I decided to not take a home test - mainly because we were so busy we were never home to take it...and I didn't want to risk taking it somewhere else. So, I waited until my appointment.

Monday, July 17th, came along. I had told my mom that day that I was just chilling and would probably be at home all day long. Of course, I headed to my 10:30 appointment as soon as possible. I was nervous and excited. My prayer was that if there was a baby, He would start to prepare me to be a mother, and if there was not, to give me peace that one day there would be.

I got to the doctor's office and don't even remember much about sitting in the waiting room. All I do remember was prayer...lots of it! When my nurse called me back, we went directly to the restroom and she began the detailed questioning about any changes since the last time I had been there. Then the conversation went something like this:

ME: Ummm...there could possibly be a kind of big change. I think I might be pregnant.

NURSE: Oh, ok. Well, what symptoms have you been having?

skip skip skip

NURSE: Well, it sure sounds like you might be right. Now, if this is true, am I going to have to pick you up off the floor, or can I say congratulations?

ME: Congratulations, definitely!

After that, she told me she would do the test for me and meet me in the lab for blood pressure, etc. I went to the lab, where she was testing. She had gotten very excited for me. She was smiling and asking about Blake and if he knew. She really made the whole experience wonderful! She escorted me into the room and said "I'll be right back" in the voice that gets higher and higher every time you say a word because you're so excited.

Well, I sat there with my heart about to pound out of my chest. Looking around, there were Pregnancy magazines everywhere. I just prayed "Your will be done." What seemed like an hour later, my nurse opened the door, peeked around it, and said...

CONGRATULATIONS!

If you know me, you know exactly what I did next...B-O-O-H-O-O-E-D...no joke. I just cried and cried, especially after she left me to wait on the doctor. I was thanking God...oh it was just precious time for me to be able to worship the One who knows me better than I know myself.

The rest of the appointment didn't matter to me after that. I had decided to have lunch with Blake afterwards, so I made my way over. When he got in the car he looked at me, and here is how that went:

BLAKE: So, how did it go?

ME: (nothing...just lots of tears)

BLAKE: (still smiling)What does that mean?

ME: (still no words...just nodding my head and more tears)

Talk about a memory. We shared this moment with Chick-Fil-A as we headed through the drive through as Blake was laughing and smiling the whole time he was ordering. We were just happy.

We decided to tell our families later that week, which was precious time. We wrapped up presents for my parents and sisters that had diapers and "I love my Auntie" onesies. For his parents, we gave his dad a kid's golf club and wrote in the card that he could use this with Caroline (his first grandchild) and the baby to come in a few months.

It has been so fun. On my facebook, I recently wrote this:

[I] think it is amazing how you can dream and pray for something for so long, and then one day, God just says "Here you go!" I cannot begin to explain the emotions going on inside of me right now! We have a healthy, dancing baby...and give ALL praise to the God who has blessed us with him/her!

At our second appointment, Blake went with me and we got to see the baby and hear his/her heartbeat. It was amazing. It was also wonderful to see that our baby is already full of the joy of the Lord - he/she would not stop dancing! :) I am totally in awe of my Creator and the miracles He is capable of. Just take a look at one of His newest creations!

Wedding Continued!

Here are some more of our favorite wedding pictures!

These are all the sweet faces that made our day even better!



These are a few of the wedding details!

My beautiful bridesmaids!



On my way to marry my groom!

Finally!!!

During our ceremony, we asked all our family and wedding party members to surround us a pray. It was one of my favorite moments of the day!

This is my "Oh yeah! We're married!" face!

YAY!


And on to the party...

This is one of my favorites from the wedding! Anytime there is a picture of me, Blake and my best friend, Chels, we are always doing something ridiculous. It is hilarious!

There were SO many pictures from the reception, but I am just going to put up an assortment of the details to end this post. Thanks for taking the time to take a look!

A Long Awaited-for Post!

After about 7 months of patiently awaiting the arrival of our wedding album, it has arrived!! And it is beautiful! We chose 6 of Four to capture the moments of our wedding day, and they did an absolutely beautiful job!

Here are some pictures of the beautiful album and what is inside:

This is the album container.

This is the album itself. It is a beautiful green with ivory ribbon on the side.

The first and last pages of the album.





Even though our reception pictures are awesome, we decided to cover only the wedding ceremony and events leading up to it in our book.

YAY 6 of Four!!

It is so fun to look through this album and remember that day. My friend Chelsea wrote a post about her day going through every detail, which I would love to do soon! But until then, here are some of the other pictures that are my favorite from the wedding events!

Our rehearsal dinner might have been my favorite thing all weekend! We had the people we love most around us and just were able to enjoy time with them! We are just so blessed!





This was when my dad saw me for the first time in my dress.








Pretty much anytime he looks at me I cry...yes, I am a daddy's girl! :)

My handsome groom and I.

The boys and the girls... the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.

To be continued...

One Good Chicken

Good Morning!

I wanted to share a recipe that I tried last night that was super easy and very delicious! It was one of those recipes that did not need expertise, but looked like you had been to cooking school and spent all day slaving over a hot stove.

Yes - those are my favorite too!

This recipe came from my Real Simple recipe book. If you have never entered into a Real Simple book, magazine, anything, go to the store NOW and grab a copy. They will help your life become...well, simpler.

I will start out with the ingredients for Simple Roast Chicken:

1 onion, sliced
1 31/2- to 4 lb. chicken, giblets removed
2 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
1 1/2 lbs. new potatoes, halved

Before I go on, I want to tell you the "substitutions" I made, or the details I changed a bit:
- I did not use a whole onion, just half of it.

- My chicken was 3.55 pounds, and I didn't remove any giblets because, well, I have no idea what that means.

- The potatoes I used were regular potatoes. I could not find "new potatoes" at my local grocery store, so I used what I had. I cut down the center of two potatoes and then chopped them up to pieces.

- The recipe calls for a "roasting pan" but I did not have that so I used a basic 9' by 13' baking pan lined with aluminum foil. My mom told me to cover it, but I forgot to...everything still turned out great, but you can try covering the pan with double aluminum foil (one pice won't be big enough).

Now I am going to give you the steps that I followed - if you have a roasting pan, just do all of this in that.

Heat your oven to 450 degrees. In your 9' by 13' pan lined with foil, group your chopped onion in the center. Pat the chicken down with a paper towel, place it on top of the onions and tuck the wings under it (I basically just set the chicken down...no need to be fancy!). Rub the chicken with 1 tablespoon of the oil and sprinkle it with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper (I rubbed the oo on with my hands then sprinkled the salt and pepper and rubbed that in too).

Put your potatoes in a bowl and mix the remaining tablespoon of oil and 1/2 and teaspoon of salt and pepper in with them. Pour them into the pan surrounding the chicken (HINT: the closer they are to touching the bottom of the pan, the better they will cook).

Roast, tossing the potatoes once for 50 - 60 minutes. Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes after taking out of the oven. ENJOY!

I served this with broccoli and rolls, and it was delectable. Not to mention it made our house smell really good!

I meant to take a picture of it right after it came out of the oven, but unfortunately I forgot. So, here is the finished product right after we enjoyed it!



Happy Tuesday!

Here We Go...

I have recently come to the conclusion that I would really love to be like those who blog ALL the time. But not just blogging for random reasons - blogging to have memories! I have many friends who are SO good at updating their blog(hello BFF)and they have inspired me to get better!

So, for starters:

Friday was a great day! I started the morning with my family at the pool. Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast, so Mom, Dad and I sat at one of the tables and just enjoyed catching up! Dad was facing the pool and in the midst of conversation he noticed a ripple coming from a filter.

So, he got up and went over to open it up, and inside was a baby rabbit! Still alive, the little guy was quite weak and cold, but was going to be fine. I ended up taking it home with me due to the hungry hawk we had heard and seen all morning.

That same afternoon, my niece, CB (11 months), came over to spend the afternoon with her auntie Am. Now, times like this, according to Blake, are supposed to serve as birth control. However, it did quite the opposite. We had a blast! We learned how to high five and pretended to go to sleep on our bed and wake up on our bed. We just laughed and laughed! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...one day, through God's grace, I will have my very own and do this EVERY DAY!!!





Continuing on, I had put the rabbit in the back room so Miss CB wouldn't/couldn't get to it. Well, when Uncle Blake got home, we went back to see it, and much to our surprise it was NOT in the box! Fortunately we found it hiding under the dresser right away. Unfortunately, Blake spent the next 20 minutes chasing after the rabbit throughout our guest bedroom trying to recapture it while CB was just a laughing. She watched every move Blake and the rabbit made, making little noises that sounded like "Ehh" and "Uhh", but I interpreted them as "get it" and "I want it." Hilarious!!!When Blake finally got the rabbit, we let it go outside, and as CB watched it dash away she made sweet sounds of approval.

The rest of the evening was basically spent "playing house" and I watched my desire for a baby to join our family increase!!!

But for now, I am loving being a wife, friend, daughter, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister, aunt...and I am joyfully, patiently (kinda sorta), and prayerfully awaiting for my time to be a mother.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the sun.

I DID IT!

You know those times when you feel really happy? Like when everything just feels right. You almost get tingly, and - if you're like me - you almost cry a little.

I had a lot of those moments today. Fourth grade went on a field trip to Turner Field and the Varsity today. I know - it was as awesome as you think it might be. We went on the field - at least the dirt - and into the dugout. We also saw the locker rooms and went behind the scenes where the radio announcers announce. It was AWESOME - even from the teacher's perspective.




But, before all this, I was really nervous. On our last field trip, I paired up with another teacher and we went everywhere together - we were with each other if there was a problem; we were there if we had a parent problem (you would be surprised!); we basically had "backup."

But this field trip was different. I was by myself. The way we split up the classes required me to be the only teacher with a group of 22 students - and their parents. This scared me. Really. What if something went wrong? What if someone was angry? I can't handle this?!

I prayed and prayed. But not for what I thought I would pray for - please let nothing go wrong, etc. No - I prayed that God would just be with me and provide the ingredients I needed to be successful and capable.

And you know what - I DID IT!

All day it felt like God was hugging me. It was like little moments where all I wanted to do was just lay down and cry because everything was so good. Instead of doing that, I just smiled the whole day and watched as God stood beside me.

I think He might have been smiling!

All of this made me want to drink from His word and find some encouragement:

Obvisously, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as though we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26

So...two things: God has my back. And He knows what I need.

He has given me the Holy Spirit to translate my thoughts and feelings into pleas and requests. How great is our God??!!

Another verse I thought about today: Do you not know that you are a temple of God...


We're supposed to fill our "temples" with good, right? Do Varsity onion rings count?


Wishing you many hugs from God,
Amory

7 pounds

Hello Again.

I know what you're thinking. I don't know what has gotten into me. I just have time...or really I am escaping from the time I do NOT have and all the papers to grade in order to blog. But this is way better!

Blake and I watched the movie Seven Pounds the other night. I had not ever read anything on this movie, so I had no idea what to expect.

We watched the whole thing, and it was not until the end that I realized what was going on and what was probably going to happen. I'm not really big into guessing the ending (however, I am really into talking to the movie: "Don't go in there?" or "Why are you so stupid?")

ALERT: This is about to spoil this movie if you have not seen it. Just wanted to be sure you were aware!

Will Smith plays a man that has lost his wife and killed multiple other people in a car accident caused by him. He goes throughout the whole movie pretending to be an employee of the U.S. Treasury Department, going from person to person to see if they deserve an extension.

Not until the end did I realize what he was actually doing: all of the people he visited had disabilities - one man was blind, one girl had heart troubles, one man needed bone marrow. He had actually gone around to these people to see if they deserved new "parts" to fix the ones that were broken. He wanted to give back, and in the end, he kills himself and the rest of the movie shows the blind man seeing, the girl with the heart problem living freely, the person who needs bone marrow free of pain.

And the waterworks began! Can you spell C-R-Y-B-A-B-Y?!

If Blake hadn't been next to me, I probably would have been crying for way longer than I was. It was ridiculous how many tears I let out.

But they were legit. I just witnessed (on a screen) a man who felt like he owed everyone something and gave everything to save them.

Sound familiar.

The blind man sees.

The (almost) dead living again.

Hello JESUS!

And when I made that connection, I realized how casual I have been when it comes to being reminded of what Jesus did for me. When a man sacrifices himself in a movie I go ballistic. When I hear about Jesus dying on the cross for me, and you, and everyone, I think "Oh, how sweet."

Lord, forgive me!

I want to be torn apart when I dwell on what Jesus did for me. He gave everything he had because He WANTED TO.

I cannot make any sense of this. But I want to be moved deeply every time I encounter this truth.

We are such imperfect beings, but God has given us a "part" that is irreplaceable and undeniable called grace. We need this to have life - the life God has prepared for us.


...for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23-24

Praise the Lord!

I pray that God's grace is keeping you alive and well, and that the next time you encounter the beautiful story of the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, you will be moved deeply.

In Humility,
Amory