a few things I've learned

Being married for a year has been amazing. Not perfect, but definitely worth everything. I decided to make a list of a few things that I've learned this past year.

-Going hiking with Joel is a struggle. He hikes like he's racing for his life, and I meander along at a snail's pace, stopping to drink water, poke at nature, or take pictures every 5 minutes. Pretty much we're the most incompatible hiking team alive.
Case in point: the Crater Lake hike. He left me for dead in the beating sun with no food or water for what seemed like days. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but still. It truly is a miracle to me how slow he can walk in a grocery store compared to how fast he can walk up a steep mountain.


-Footrubs, compliments, and "thankyous" can work wonders.

-Camping is even more fun than ever. Making s'mores, sitting around the campfire, and assembling the tent in record time never gets old.


-Camping in a complete downpour all night long is not so fun. Unless you brought a laptop and a DVD. Now we're talking! We watched "The Proposal" in the wilderness and it was funny. Nevermind that our tent was slightly flooded the next morning and we had to leave early!

-I've learned the value of a crockpot. As Joel would say, "You can just stick crap in that thing and it still comes out good!"

-Hiding the xbox video games is not the solution to get Joel to stop playing them (although it may be very entertaining)
-Completely unplugging and removing the xbox is also not the solution (although it may seem like a great idea at the time)
-Sometimes I just want to throw the xbox into the above picture.

-No matter how big the spider or how loud I scream, Joel is still going to take his sweet time getting to the nasty bug that is very big and scary.

-Playing games is always entertaining. Joel has accepted that I don't have any sense of competition, and I've accepted that Joel feels no remorse for flat-out cheating in a game if I'm not looking.
Mancala is still the greatest game ever.

Although we do play a lot of cards...


-Joel has (I think) learned to deal with my constant low blood sugars. He can tell by the temp of my skin if I'm low and, sweet man that he is, will get out of bed at 1 in the a.m. and get me some juice :)

-Praying together every morning and night is very wonderful
-Not everything has to be perfect all the time...although it would be nice sometimes. ;)

All in all,
Life is great. xoxo

somedays...

I just really miss my little spencey and the big green yard in Oregon where I grew up.

celebrating one year of eternity

This past weekend Joel and I celebrated our one year anniversary! my amazing parents surprised us with a stay at the hermitage hotel (where we stayed on our wedding night) and a sunday brunch that was beyond anything I've ever tasted. we also went to Mere Bulles for dinner on saturday night! it was such a beautifully delicious weekend!

...nothing better than a blue sky saturday at the hermitage!


I spy with my little eye....my hubby reading the newspaper


we saved the top from our wedding cake and hallelujah it won't be taking up any more room in our already too-small freezer. FINALLY, its gone! and the strawberry cake was still delicious after 365 days in a box in a freezer.











this past year has been filled with a lot of newlywed ups and downs, but mainly just a lot of love. :)

a few more pictures

its so wonderful to finally have a guest bedroom! joel would like to call it his "study" but I really just don't see it. we still need to get a desk in there. this is the only room in our apartment with a walk-in closet, so we just decided all of his clothes and stuff can go in there and I get the closet in the master bedroom. my only concern was that this room would turn into joel's old bedroom aka: a disaster. so obviously I made it look girly and non-mancave-ish on purpose. ;)


on our to-do list: get window curtains and a desk.
its a work in progress.





we got this dresser for free (thanks, emily!!) and it needed some sprucing up! so, a little sanding and painting and voilà!