A few weeks ago our Pastor suggested that we watch the movie "Fireproof" and observe the relationships in the movie. While this is a very cheesy movie and has some not so good acting we still enjoyed the message the movie was presenting.
In this movie a couple that has been married for 7 years is on the brink of divorce. The husbands christian father give him a book of written "tasks" that he must do for 40 days to try and save his marriage. These tasks are small things like doing something small and out of the ordinary (he decided to make her a cup of coffee which she happened to be in a hurry that morning and did not want it, so that made him mad!) A few days later his task was to create a romantic moment, so he went all out and created a very romantic dinner, and her response was telling him she did not love him.
Even though his wife kept rejecting him and everything he was doing for her, he still kept going. Every day he found something new to appreciate her for. He had his bad days and there were several days that he was ready to give up and just sign the divorce papers. But with the encouragement of his father he kept going.
One day his wife stayed home sick. The husband left to get her lunch to help make her feel better. She then revealed the book of tasks and asked him what day he was on. By that point he was on day 44, remember the book only has 40 days.
In the end the couple stayed together. They renewed their love for each other, worked on their communication and learned to appreciate each other more than they ever did before.
When you are with some one for a long time you become used to all their quirks and as time goes by your love for them should grow stronger. But if you start to feel something fall way, take a step back and take the time to remind yourself why you are with that person.
What made you fall in love with them? What about this person do you appreciate? What can you do for this person to show them you still love them? What in life have you sacrificed for them? What have they sacrificed for you!?
These are all questions that came to my mind while watching this movie. Every day I am reminded that even though I was picky and had high standards, I found the man of my dreams. I love him and appreciate him for everything he has provided for me. He has made me want to be a better person, and I am going to MARRY him!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
mistakes
I have got to be one of the worst bloggers ever. I completely forgot that I even had this thing until I was looking at our wedding website last night!
A lot has happened in the past few weeks. This past week has probably been the most eventful. We had to get our invitations done and mailed out before the price of stamps went up. We had already bought our stamps a few weeks ago, but we were not very proactive about getting the invitation assembled. So, Sunday and Monday nights were very late nights for us. Finally around 11:30 Monday night we sealed the last invitation and Aaron packed them up to mailed out Tuesday morning.
I was very excited about our invitations until Aaron calls me yesterday and tells me that we spelled cocktail wrong. How in the world did I spell that wrong, and how did I miss it?!?! I was so mad, and I am still a little mad. We spent some much time and money to make these invitations perfect and there is a word spelled wrong. AAARRGGHHH! Mom said that if that is the worst thing that goes wrong we are doing well. But I am still not happy about the situation. uugghh...
On Saturday I went in for my first official dress fitting. The dress looked amazing...but not so much on me. I still have some work to do to make it look better on me. Everyone says it will look fine, but I disagree right now. I got a little upset with myself for not trying harder to make myself look better for the past year and a half. But...then I have to remind myself that Aaron loves me no matter what :)
The next few weeks are going to be crazy. As of today we are 65 days from our wedding day. I am so ready for it to be here!!
A lot has happened in the past few weeks. This past week has probably been the most eventful. We had to get our invitations done and mailed out before the price of stamps went up. We had already bought our stamps a few weeks ago, but we were not very proactive about getting the invitation assembled. So, Sunday and Monday nights were very late nights for us. Finally around 11:30 Monday night we sealed the last invitation and Aaron packed them up to mailed out Tuesday morning.
I was very excited about our invitations until Aaron calls me yesterday and tells me that we spelled cocktail wrong. How in the world did I spell that wrong, and how did I miss it?!?! I was so mad, and I am still a little mad. We spent some much time and money to make these invitations perfect and there is a word spelled wrong. AAARRGGHHH! Mom said that if that is the worst thing that goes wrong we are doing well. But I am still not happy about the situation. uugghh...
On Saturday I went in for my first official dress fitting. The dress looked amazing...but not so much on me. I still have some work to do to make it look better on me. Everyone says it will look fine, but I disagree right now. I got a little upset with myself for not trying harder to make myself look better for the past year and a half. But...then I have to remind myself that Aaron loves me no matter what :)
The next few weeks are going to be crazy. As of today we are 65 days from our wedding day. I am so ready for it to be here!!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Waiting...
Waiting...that seems to be the only wedding thing I am doing these days. Waiting for the dress to come in. Waiting to pay more money to the vendors. Waiting for mom to send me updated pictures showing me what the centerpieces will look like. Waiting for my hair to grow long so that we can achieve the hairstyle I want. Waiting, waiting, waiting!
As of today we are 108 days away. I feel blessed that we have had the amount of time to plan that we have. As a result of allowing ourselves this amount of time we are not stressed with the planning. We know that everything is taken care of and we know what to expect come July. That being said, I dont like WAITING! I am so ready for July 11th to be here. I am ready to be married to the man of my dreams and move forward with our lives.
But alas, I must be patient. I had to wait 25 years for him to come into my life, I guess I can wait another 108 days to have him as my husband :-)
As of today we are 108 days away. I feel blessed that we have had the amount of time to plan that we have. As a result of allowing ourselves this amount of time we are not stressed with the planning. We know that everything is taken care of and we know what to expect come July. That being said, I dont like WAITING! I am so ready for July 11th to be here. I am ready to be married to the man of my dreams and move forward with our lives.
But alas, I must be patient. I had to wait 25 years for him to come into my life, I guess I can wait another 108 days to have him as my husband :-)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Honeymoon is finally BOOKED!
For about two weeks we have been researching and comparing all of the Sandals resorts. After reading reviews and watching forums and comparing prices and actually creating a spreadsheet to compare them all, we finally decided on Sandals Royal Caribbean. Who knew that deciding on a honeymoon would take this much work! Maybe for some people its not, but there were certain things that we wanted and we needed to make sure we got what we want!
Now, we did book SRC, however going to bed Thursday night I thought we were booking Sandals Royal Bahamian in the Bahamas. That resort seems amazing, however it was the only resort that did not offer the horseback riding excursion. Aaron knew I wanted to ride horses in the ocean so on Friday he talked to the travel agent and after many phone calls he decided on a swim-up river suite at the Royal Caribbean. I am going to be able to walk out of the room and go directly into the water!!
I dont know what I am looking forward to more, getting married in a castle or having a super sweet honeymoon in Jamaica!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Feel Free To Say I Love You
Ok, so of course on Valentines Day some people have mixed emotions about the day. I would like to remind everyone of the original reason the Valentines Day exists.
NOTE: I did not write this, I did some research and this is what I found
As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier.
According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage.
This was around when the heyday of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.
Valentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully.
On February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.
"From your Valentine"
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after.
Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.
The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum.
So, as you can see the reason we have Valentines Day is kind of sad. I think we need to take this day and be thankful that we are allowed to announce to the world who we love and that we are able to publicly show that love. I dont know about anyone else, but if I had to hide the love that I have for my fiance, I would go CRAZY!
So, instead of getting upset because your significant other forgot to send you flowers or get you a gift of some sort, be thankful that you are allowed to love who you choose and that you are not forced to hide those amazing feelings.
NOTE: I did not write this, I did some research and this is what I found
As early as the fourth century B.C., the Romans engaged in an annual young man's rite to passage to the God Lupercus. The names of the teenage women were placed in a box and drawn at random by adolescent men; thus, a man was assigned a woman companion for the duration of the year, after which another lottery was staged. After eight hundred years of this cruel practice, the early church fathers sought to end this practice... They found an answer in Valentine, a bishop who had been martyred some two hundred years earlier.
According to church tradition St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor Claudius-II who had issued an edict forbidding marriage.
This was around when the heyday of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Learning declined, taxation increased, and trade slumped to a low, precarious level. And the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asian increased their pressure on the empire's boundaries. The empire was grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Thus more of capable men were required to be recruited as soldiers and officers. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. So to assure quality soldiers, he banned marriage.
Valentine, a bishop , seeing the trauma of young lovers, met them in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested. The emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods, to save him from certain execution. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully.
On February 24, 270, Valentine was executed.
"From your Valentine"
While Valentine was in prison awaiting his fate, he came in contact with his jailor, Asterius. The jailor had a blind daughter. Asterius requested him to heal his daughter. Through his faith he miraculously restored the sight of Asterius' daughter. Just before his execution, he asked for a pen and paper from his jailor, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after.
Valentine thus become a Patron Saint, and spiritual overseer of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14. The greeting cards acquired St.Valentine's name.
The Valentine's Day card spread with Christianity, and is now celebrated all over the world. One of the earliest card was sent in 1415 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. The card is now preserved in the British Museum.
So, as you can see the reason we have Valentines Day is kind of sad. I think we need to take this day and be thankful that we are allowed to announce to the world who we love and that we are able to publicly show that love. I dont know about anyone else, but if I had to hide the love that I have for my fiance, I would go CRAZY!
So, instead of getting upset because your significant other forgot to send you flowers or get you a gift of some sort, be thankful that you are allowed to love who you choose and that you are not forced to hide those amazing feelings.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Honeymoon!
For awhile now Aaron and I have been trying to figure out if we would be able to afford a honeymoon or not. Aaron has had this dream of going to Sandals since he was 12 years old, but what he didn't understand when he was 12 is how expensive a Sandals trip can get! So after several conversations we decided that we would wait and see how much we got back from Uncle Sam this year; what ever we got back would determine how much we could spend on a honeymoon. Well much to our surprise Uncle Sam decided to bless us with an amazing honeymoon this year:) Now the only problem is finding a flight that doesn't have FOUR layovers! Who really wants to spend the first two days of married life in an airport?!?
So far we have been very blessed to have the means to do everything we want for this wedding. I know that we can do things for a lot cheaper than what we are. But almost every girl has a dream of having a Cinderella wedding and before Aaron and I were even engaged I knew we needed to start saving money in order to get what we wanted. There have been some sacrifices along the way and definitely some compromises! This whole journey has proven to be a test for Aaron and I financially and has taught us financial responsibility that will only help us later in life.
Now we are off to plan an awesome honeymoon to celebrate our commitment to each other!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
I hate addresses
Aaron and I have been busy collecting addresses for the past couple weeks. That part has not been to bad...however, every time we go to enter a new address for someone we realize that we forgot someone else. UGH! That is the part I hate! So then we sit and discuss whether or not we should invite some one. I finally decided that if I have not talked to you in the past year, there is really no reason I need to invite you (with the exception of family members).
I feel that if I am going to have people participate and witness our special day that we should have had a better friendship/relationship over time. There are people I went to college with that probably don't even know that I am getting married, or that I even have a fiance, so they probably wont miss anything by not being at the wedding right?
Oh, but now I feel bad even after typing that...but really, I cant afford to buy more invitations or to feed more people...
I just have to remind myself every time I get distracted by who I should or shouldn't invite, or by how much the decorations are going to cost or how much food people get to get, that the wedding day is meant for one thing: Aaron and I pledging our love for each other and that is all that really matters. No matter who is invited or how much shrimp one person eats, Aaron and
I will still be married.
I feel that if I am going to have people participate and witness our special day that we should have had a better friendship/relationship over time. There are people I went to college with that probably don't even know that I am getting married, or that I even have a fiance, so they probably wont miss anything by not being at the wedding right?
Oh, but now I feel bad even after typing that...but really, I cant afford to buy more invitations or to feed more people...
I just have to remind myself every time I get distracted by who I should or shouldn't invite, or by how much the decorations are going to cost or how much food people get to get, that the wedding day is meant for one thing: Aaron and I pledging our love for each other and that is all that really matters. No matter who is invited or how much shrimp one person eats, Aaron and
I will still be married.
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