Keep Falling In Love

In this new phase of our lives, I want to intentionally build habits that will strengthen our marriage and keep the passion alive. I've found some great ideas at the following links, and I'm going to be implementing them immediately.

25 ways to communicate respect to your husband / 25 ways to show your wife you love her

100 ways to make your marriage rock

30 day husband encouragement challenge

You're Going Where?

You may have heard rumors about us moving to Las Vegas. Yep, it's true! Jason and Lauren Koemans are moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Don't worry, I didn't expect that either. Here's how it happened:

Frontier School of the Bible is a three year program to receive an associate's degree. For a bachelor's degree students have the option of doing a 9-12 month internship anywhere as a "fourth" year. As Jason moved towards the end of his third year at FSB, we began to pray about an internship opportunity. Both of us felt like we would be willing to go anywhere. Well I know now that I should have been more clear with God, haha.

A church in Byron Center, MI, had caught our attention early in the year. Michigan had always been a place I was drawn to because my grandparents live there. The head pastor of the church had taught one of the lecture weeks at FSB and the youth pastor was the son of FSB's dean of students. Jason and the pastor had spoken and the pastor had told him to stay in touch. He seemed like the ideal pastor to intern under. We tried contacting the church and pursuing an internship, but they were hard to get a hold of and slow to contact us. By April we began to feel like we were trying to force ourselves into a position that wasn't open, and we began to feel pressure to find an internship before graduation in May.

Shortly after that Jason came home from class and told me his teacher had shared with them about a church, Las Vegas Bible Church, that really could use an intern to help with the youth and music ministry. As he told me, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's nice. I'm sure God will provide someone for that internship but there's no way it's for us." But I was soon to be proven wrong.

On facebook a few days later we got a message from a FSB grad that Jason had worked in youth ministry with. He said, 

Hey Jason,  dude I miss ya. I know this is totally random, but I just need to put a little bug in your ear so my conscience leaves me alone. I have no clue what you're planning on doing after graduation, you probably already have things lined up for internships or whatever. HOWEVER, may I simply throw your way something to pray about. Pastor Nathan Reichert and Las Vegas Bible Church need a person/couple with a big heart for youth (which I've seen in you first-hand) and giftedness in music...

Needless to say after reading that I was hooked. More like God had hooked me and I knew even though I would have never picked Vegas, He picked it for us. So we began to pursue the internship at Las Vegas Bible Church and the doors just kept opening wider and wider!

As of August 27th we will be living in Las Vegas for at least a year! Jason with be doing a pastoral internship under Nathan and will oversee the youth and music ministries. We are praying that we can both get jobs soon and we are praising God for the faithful team we have behind us - all of our rent is covered by monthly support and all of our ministry and lives are covered by prayer. God is good!

Second Half

Only 13 days after Jason's first ever half-marathon we ran another half-marathon by his request! My dad joined us as well. The race was in St. Ignatius, and it was beautiful! You had the Mission Mountains ahead of you and pasture land around you! It was all part of the "Good Ole Days" Festival, so afterward was a yummy pancake breakfast at the Senior Center! Our only complaint was that the course was advertised as "mostly flat" but the race was actually uphill for 7 miles! All in all it was a blast.

 

Jason was first in his age group (out of 5) and third overall! His time was a PR at 1:39:49. Let's just say I finished. Haha. I did get third in my age group (out of 5) and my dad got third as well! 

That's How We Celebrate!

We took a couple days to celebrate our one year anniversary!

Friday July 27 we enjoyed dinner at Montana Club, 

partially paid for by the gift card Jason won through his golf tournament!

Saturday July 28 began with an early morning tee time for Jason at the Ranch Club Golf Course, compliments of me! I joined him in the cart and we had a good time. The course is very pretty!

We continued that day with a shopping trip for a new vacuum, which left us with extra cash to spend since we found one for a better deal than the one we returned. I also got to shop for some sandals, which was my gift from Jason.

After a couple hours at the river to cool off and relax, we headed downtown to enjoy another dinner. We had planned on going to this new restaurant downtown, but when we got there realized it was not at all what we expected and quickly left. We chose the Silk Road instead, classy cuisine from all over Europe! We enjoyed a multi-course meal, all very delicious!

Monday July 30 was our actual anniversary, and we enjoyed a homemade dinner with Jason's parents. Jason also surprised me at work with a pair of Toms! And I gave him the gifts I had made for him (blogged about earlier).

Better Half

For me, running is a passion. I find enjoyment in it. For Jason, it is getting to be that way, but for the most part it is "work." That being said, it meant so much to me in March when he said he wanted to start running with me and run the Missoula Half Marathon with me in July! We began training...he ran some 5ks in the meantime and I ran 2 other half-marathons.

On July 8, 2012, was the big day. Here's how it played out:

Wake up before sunrise to get to the race start at 6 am on Blue Mountain Road by the Peak Gym.

Jason said he'd probably stay with me until mile 4 or 5, like our training runs. 

But no. By mile 1.2 he was looong gone!

So we each just did our own thing.

The course is very pretty, and there are people cheering you on, sprinklers to cool off with, and even inspirational signs!

Once you see the Higgins Street bridge you have come about 13 miles and suddenly you get a second wind... You can tell Jason is running fast! It felt like I was sprinting...but in the picture it doesn't look like it haha.

Once you finish there are refreshing snacks and loving fans to greet you:

And huge grins for a successful day!

Here are the stats:
* For Jason's first ever half-marathon, he ran a 1:41:45! Finishing 126/754 overall for men and 17/50 in his age group.
* For my third half-marathon, I ran a 1:54:50, which is my personal best! I finished 241/1784 overall for women and 29/170 in my age group.

The best part was the next day when Jason asked if we could run another one -- that one being a mere 13 days away! So we signed up!

End of Chapter One

Here we are already a week into chapter 2 of forever! It's amazing how time flies and how many things can happen in one year! Our first year of marriage looked like this:

Wedding Day -- July 30, 2011

We thoroughly enjoyed our wedding day! It was so special and for the most part exactly what we wanted!

Honeymoon -- Maui!

We played mini-golf on a glow-in-the-dark course! That was fun!

And more mini golf at a beautiful tropical course!

 Can't beat watching Hawaiian sunsets!

And it was super fun to grill on the rooftop!

We also got to visit an aquarium, shop, eat out, relax, take surfing lessons, and snorkel at Molokini. Jason planned our destination, what a great surprise!

Livin in LaGrange, WY -- August 2011 - May 2012

We were in La Grange WY because Jason was completing his last year of at Frontier School of the Bible. I worked in Nebraska (90 miles round trip) at a vet clinic during our time here. He graduated May 11! It was so good to finally not be long distance for college and to experience it all together!

Our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs...some spent in Montana and some in Michigan.

In March we led a missions group from Frontier School of the Bible -- serving the lost and our fellow believers in Missoula.

In April there was Jason's senior banquet...

And also in April a mini-getaway to Westminster CO!

While there Jason ran his first major 5k race and I ran a half-marathon with my friend Jilanne. 

We also enjoyed a day of shopping and playing (including mini-golf again!)

Our first Easter as Mr. & Mrs...

And our first visit as Mr. & Mrs. to Las Vegas, NV, our soon-to-be home!

Our first half-marathon together! 

The Missoula Half-marathon on July 8, 2012.

And our second half marathon together...only 13 days after the first! 

The Buffalo Run in St. Ignatius on July 17, 2012.

Our first year of marriage has been wonderful. Not perfect, not without lessons and learning, but still wonderful. In some ways marriage has been different than I expected, mostly because of naive misconceptions about the reality of marriage. Overall though, marriage has been better than I expected! I absolutely love being married to Jason Paul Koemans!

"For better or for worse are so much more than only words...and I pray every day will be the proof that I mean what I say when I say, 'I do'"

Made With Love!

Originally, my husband and I were not going to spend money on gifts for our one-year anniversary, and instead just spend money on doing something together. But I still wanted to get make him something, and I was inspired by Pinterest. 

I saw this tutorial for canvas wall art...

And tried my hand at it. I didn't like attempt number one:

The stickers that actually stuck the best didn't have cut outs for the insides of the letters (like "e" or "s") so they showed up funny and I didn't have the time or skill to hand cut them. Plus I thought the font was weird... On a side note this project was a lot harder than I thought. The stickers are hard to peel off without leaving pieces behind and it's hard to have enough letters without buying six sticker packages to get your whole phrase.

But attempt number two was a lot better, except one thing - not wanting to waste the first two of the four canvases I tried to "re-do" them. The grey-on-yellow one worked well...but I don't know if I like the yellow-on-blue one...

We even used them in our photo-shoot for anniversary photos!

And will hang them in our bedroom once we move to our new apartment!

I also was inspired by The Dating Divas blog to make a jar of dates - 10 dates for $2. Here's how my date jar turned out: 

(I'm not gonna detail the dates yet because they will be a surprise to Jason as he picks them one-by-one. Hopefully I can document and blog about the dates once we've done them!)

I also was just super impressed by my gift-wrap skills:

(Yes I did re-use tissue paper and ribbon from our wedding gifts!)

PS: We were blessed with a gift card for a restaurant and a place to stay, so we ended up having some "gift-money" as well!

{Several more anniversary posts will follow!}

Celebrate the Differences

Jason and I are very different in many ways. Most of the ways make me smile. Some of the ways I appreciate a lot. And there might be one or two ways that could be frustrating if I let them.

This last week I've been compiling a list of these differences, just for fun!

I always leave the switch on the overhead light in my car in the middle position so that the light turns on when my door is open and off when it shuts. I know when Jason drives my car, because the switch is always moved to the "off" position because he doesn't trust it to actually turn off when the doors shut. This makes me smile.

I rarely turn the air completely "off" in my car. I just adjust the temperature and/or fan settings to get the car comfortable. He turns the air completely off a lot. This makes me smile.

At dinner Jason eats one thing at a time and gets overwhelmed if I say things like, "Hey, are you gonna have some oven fries too??" I like to put a little of everything on my plate and eat a few bites of each thing here and there. This makes me smile.

I season my food while it's cooking and rarely add anything else once it's on the table. Jason needs salt and pepper on every meal and Worcestershire sauce on every piece of meat, no matter what other seasonings are on it. This makes me smile.

I like to plan ahead. Jason likes to be spontaneous and gets stressed if I try to plan too much too far ahead. This can be frustrating at moments, but we are learning to work together.

When Jason does the dishes, he puts them away as he goes. I leave them out on the counter to dry. I really appreciate that he puts them away right away, it makes the kitchen so much cleaner!

Jason is good a driving in the morning without falling asleep. I have a really hard time staying awake unless I get the perfect amount of sleep. I appreciate his ability to be a safe driver!

Jason hardly ever goes above the speed limit. I like to go 5 above most of the time. I appreciate his conviction of obeying the law exactly (and not getting a speeding ticket!)

I know there are more, and maybe I will add to the list later! I have found that our differences usually compliment each other or just give me something to smile about.

Memory Bank #1

{I'm going to create and electronic "memory bank" where I blog about random memories as they come to mind. That way I don't forget!}

In highschool when Jason and I were dating, I would leave notes for him EVERYWHERE! In his locker...on his car... After school his car would typically be parked at Fort Missoula for soccer practice and I would drive by it on my way home from cross-country practice. Usually I stopped and left a note and/or a treat in the car (because it was a junker he never locked it!). One weekend I was going hunting with Meaghan and would have no cell service the whole time. Friday night before we left we'd all been hanging out a friend's house. On my way back home I saw Jason's car parked at Rosaures (cause he had car pooled to the party) and I really wanted to stop and fill it with notes and treats, but it was late at night and I was expected home. When I got home and started to pack, my mom had the idea to take the popcorn you can pop over a campfire. But did we have any at home?? NO. So my mom sends me to...Rosaures. YES!! I was able to fill Jason's car with notes, oatmeal cream pies, laffy taffy, and sweethearts. He would find them the next morning...long after I was out of cell service.

A Forever Kinda Love

"Marriage is a taste of heaven on earth"

Eric & Leslie Ludy

Being married to Jason is the best! God has blessed me and us so much. I can't believe I married such a handsome and wonderful, godly man. We have all the furniture we need, all the appliances and dishes and decorations. We have groceries. I have a job. Jason has a job. We have a great job and a forever love. We are so blessed!

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect! I loved every minute of it! And the whole week was definitely the second best week of my life, like I hoped! I will post pictures of it all soon, but I can't get on the internet much and my laptop won't get on at all, I'm using Jason's. Plus I don't have our wedding pictures yet, although I can offer you a sneak peak!

This is a summary of our wedding week and all the days since, when you haven't heard from me:

Monday, July 25: My best friend Monica arrived to town, so she did errands with me and we got to talk and hang out.

Wednesday, July 27: Spa night with my bridesmaids and friends. This night was a blast! Mel, one of my close college friends, and Kate, my college roommates, arrived for the party. I got to be with Hannah, Monica, and Heidi too! My good friend from work, Britten, who is a rockstar at painting nails came to do the bridesmaids and Mel's nails. Another lady I work with, Brandi, did a MaryKay spa treatment on our feet! Kate, Mel, Josie and I spent the night in my room, which was a lot of fun!

Thursday, July 28: My grandmom hosted a beautiful bridal breakfast at the Ranch Club for us! The food was soo delicious, the view was spectacular, and the fellowship will be cherished! This was also the first day we could be at Butler Creek Lodge, our wedding site. So we moved a bunch of stuff up there, started setting up rentals and other stuff. Thursday night the girls spoiled me with a lovely Bachelorette Party! Meaghan and Kate Gillett were there too, it was so good to all be together!

Friday, July 29: This was more setting up at Butler Creek! Jason and I were able to steal away for quiet moments at the creek or walking down the road. The rehearsal and dinner was a good time. Most of our family arrived in time for dinner and we got to spend time with them. My college friends Courtney, Amy, and Jen arrived after dinner and we spent the evening as a big group of girls hanging out in the loft of the Lodge! I love all my friends so much! Heidi, Josie and I slept in a queen bed together. I didn't get much sleep, but it was worth it to spend the night with my sisters!

Saturday, July 30: Was THE BIG DAY! The girls and I went to get our hair done in town at Burtons. We got there super early so I bought us all coffee at Florence Coffee Co and we went to Ft Missoula for a bit. Burtons did a marvelous job on our hair! We all looked soo pretty! Once we got back we all got ready with our dresses and make-up. Then there were pictures and lots of hanging out and laughing. Our bridal party was the absolute best! Our ceremony started a little after 3. From here on out you will have to wait until I post the pictures with the details of everything else that happened! =) For our wedding night we went to a secret location that held special memories for us.

Monday, August 1: We arrived back in Missoula and opened gifts. We also just hung out with my family and went to Mackenzie River pizza. We stayed the night at Red Lion on Broadway, because in the morning we were flying to....MAUI!!

Monday, August 8: At midnight my mom picked us back up from the airport and we spent the night in a TWIN bed at my house!

The rest of the week was spent with our families, playing baseball with Josie, and shopping and packing for WYOMING! Heidi got back from Germany on Friday, so we spent some time with her too.

Saturday, August 13: Jason in his Honda led my mom in her Yukon plus trailer and me in my Ford on the 13 hour drive to La Grange, Wyoming! We did stop at Goodwill in Billings, that's why it took a couple extra hours.

My mom stayed till Tuesday morning and we all worked hard to clean, unpack, and set up our new apartment! We have a cute apartment on campus, an 8-plex with 7 other married couples/families (Yes, half of them have kids/babies!) as neighbors. Our apartment has two bedrooms, a kitchen/laundry room, a dining/living room, and one and a half bathrooms. It's perfect too! All our furniture is from Jason's mom...either her old stuff, her mom's stuff, or garage sale stuff. The only thing Jason and I paid for is our desk, which was like $15 at an auction! We are soo blessed!

Jason started classes and work at a ranch yesterday. I started work yesterday as a veterinary assistant at a vet clinic that is about 47 miles away in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Yes, the drive is long, but the job is a blessing. I will work 40 hours in 4 days, then get three days off, although I will work every other weekend.

We are loving married life and aiming to keep Christ the center so that our love will be the forever kind.

I will post more about each event mentioned above, including adding pictures, as I can. It's a bit tricky with working so much and with our internet being sketchy, but I will get it done eventually!

The Second Best Week of My Life

I know that a lot of brides are so stressed out they are miserable the week of the wedding. Or some brides have gone of the deep end and just want the wedding to be over with. I did not want to be "one of those" brides. Yes, I know that a lot of work is done this week, people are tired and tensions can be high. But I wanted to embrace it all. I wanted to make the best of it all - so that it was the second best week of my life (the honeymoon should be the best week). And so far it's working!!

Why is it working?

REASON #1: Prayer and time in the Word.

REASON #2: AWESOME HELPERS...

AWESOME HELPER #1 - MY MOM. She should be a wedding planner! Seriously! This wedding is coming together better than I thought it would...and it's largely up to her! She has worked on soo many projects, arranged soo many things, and given ton of her time and energy! I am so thankful for all she's done, and I know this week is going smoothly because of all the work she has done in the weeks before. She has...

Made our awesome favors (This is the sign I made to explain them).

Made our awesome pennant flags... And SO MUCH MORE!!

AWESOME HELPER #2 - My dad. He has surprised me with with the wedding planning business, because he's soo handy and soo willing! We need a dance floor...my dad says he'll build one and finds the wood for free!

We need ladder golf...and he whips not one, but TWO up.

We need hand painted signs...he finds legit barn wood AND offers to paint them!

He has done so much more too!

AWESOME HELPERS - OTHERS. There are TONS of other people who have helped in little or big ways, and everything is soo appreciated. Jason does his fair share, and he is planning ALL of our honeymoon so that I can be surprised! Lucy helped cut a bunch of fabric for us. Darlene made mints. Anna, Whitney, Karen, Rosemary & Corie are helping with decorating projects. Kylie is our day of coordinator...which is a big role. Kate is taking photos and videoing! Peter and Amanda are doing music and being the emcees. Stephanie is making and cutting the cake. The Heges are wonderful hosts to some of our guests, as well as helping on the actual wedding day. We have guys for a parking crew and guys for a tear down crew. Britten is painting our nails and Brandi is doing a spa night for the girls. My grandparents have helped with little projects and my grandma is hosting a bridal breakfast for us! The list goes on and on.

REASON #3: FOUR DAYS OF HAVING A GOOD TIME!!

Tonight kicks it all off... Tonight is a "spa night" for the girls and I. We our getting our nails painted, having snacks, and "pedi-soaks."

Thurdsay - bridal breakfast and my bachelorette!!

Friday - the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!!

Saturday - THE WEDDING!!

It's all a blast! I'm soo excited and so thrilled to become Jason's wife!!