Just Four Years Ago I Was Standing Alone

Not only was yesterday my wonderful father's birthday (Feliz Anniversario, Pai!) it was also the day that David asked me to marry him three years ago.

Four years ago when I came to North Carolina I didn't know anyone. Strangely enough I wasn't scared. I knew without a doubt that this was where the Lord wanted me to be and I was excited to begin the next stage of my life.

Just one week before I left for North Carolina I was in Washington DC for work. I had a friend take a picture of me near the NC pillar at the WWII memorial. This picture felt like the beginning of my new adventure.


Just last month, David and I were together in the same spot and we took a similar picture. So much has changed in just four years. I'm so grateful the Lord brought me to North Carolina and to David. Even though we are incredibly different in so many areas, we fit because he makes me feel comfortable about being me. I'm so grateful to be married to my best friend. Thanks for asking me to be your wife three years ago! I love you!

(Ok, gross, too much mushy stuff! The things I do for you, David!)

Is it too late to post about Christmas?

OF COURSE NOT!!!!

I found some fun wreaths to make for Christmas, including this wreath that is simply made with pages of a book. It cost me a total of one dollar and looks really nice in our front entry hanging on an old shutter door that used to be in our house.


I also saw this easy Pottery Barn knockoff of a twine star. All I did to make this was find five branches in our back yard, cut them the same length, wrap them in twine, and glue gun them together. (This picture makes it look a little wonky. I promise it looked better than it does here.)





This Christmas season I also was brave enough to tackle our dining room linen closet. Until now this close has been used for gardening tools/camping gear. We had done absolutely NOTHING with this closet. And when I say nothing I mean there was still some dog food in there from the previous owners of our home. So, again, we had done nothing but just shove stuff in this closet to get it out of the way.

Because I think it's a little ridiculous to have such a nice feature as a dining room linen closet I figured I should actually utilize the space as such. So after many prep talks (SO DIRTY!!!) I convinced myself to take two days and do this. I had to clean, clean, clean, and paint (two coats, darn it!). But I'm pleased with the results and having our dining linens in their own closet does save space in our kitchen. Here are some before and afters of the process. I'm mad at myself for not taking a picture before I had cleared out the closet, but what's done is done.


Yes, it was painted pink.

But it was worth it! Here's the after picture. So CLEAN!

One of David's cousins also got married in Washington DC right before Christmas. We drove up there for that and had fun spending time with David's relatives.

Here we are at the national Christmas tree. Um, so I guess I can say I've been there, done that....but the tree (you can't tell in this picture) was blue. It was pretty ugly....I'm just saying.

On the National Mall in front of the Capital:

Here's the happy couple. Can you guess which one David's related to? Nope, not the bride even though she definitely looks more like David than Bubba does.

We're so happy to have Lauren in the family. Other than me, she is actually the only other female in-law in David's entire family (on both his mom and dad's side). I'm happy to have someone to hang with!

Lauren was freezing but she braved the cold to get some pictures of her gorgeous dress.

Here's David being a helper and holding Lauren's muff while she takes pictures. You look so cute, honey!

This post is dedicated to Brittany Haderlie.