Just Josie #3

On Sunday August 5 Jason got to preach at both services for Florence Carlton Community Church where he is the summer intern. After the first service he and I stood by the door to greet people on the way out, and Josie wanted to stand with us. A lot of the people wore name tags, so even though she'd never met any of these people, she would read their name tag ahead of time and then when they got to her she'd say,

"Hey (name)! Nice to see ya!" 

With MUCH enthusiasm AND the official "pastor's handshake" (two-handed).

She'd make a great pastor's wife ;) or just a great official greeter!

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!}

The Last Best Place

Montana will always be home. And Montana will always take my breath away. God sure created some beautiful country here!

Check For Murderer

 

For those of you who fall into the above category (not gonna lie, that's me sometimes), you would appreciate  the downstairs bathroom of my parent's house:

Yes, that's right. There is a bb gun behind the towel in that bathroom, just in case you need to protect yourself from the murderer behind the curtain.

JUST KIDDING! Well sorta. There IS a bb gun there, but that's not the reason why. The reason why is Josie. Josie is obsessed with shooting the bb gun because she is TWELVE.

You see, for Josie age is defined by what you get to do, and a lot of it is based off what her siblings did at certain ages. For example, she believes that when you turn 20 you get married, because that's what I did. While she was still 11 she was praying with my dad one night. She prayed something along the lines of, "God, thank you that when I turn 12 I get to shoot a gun and kill people and kill animals." My dad immediately stopped her and said, "Josie, you never shoot people, only animals." And since then she has learned what to shoot and what not to shoot. (You can blame the "shoot people" desire on watching Westerns). Now that she is 12, she really enjoys marching into the yard with the bb(less) gun to "shoot" at birds. She just so happened to leave the gun on the bathroom floor, and now it is hanging out on the towel rack.

Just Josie #2

{This would be better video taped! Or audio recorded even.}

Our neighbors are really good to Josie and she often goes over to borrow movies and to play their xbox.

Tonight our neighbors had a lot of cars in their driveway, and she asked why. I told her they were having a party! Bad idea. She loves parties! And yes, she has crashed their parties a few times before. She spent the rest of dinner trying to convince us that she was supposed to go to the neighbor's party. We kept telling her that she didn't get an invitation, so she couldn't go if she wasn't invited.

Then her face lights up with an idea! She insisted on returning the movie she borrowed. Oh Josie, we are on to you. We know how convenient it'd be to return a movie over there tonight.

When that didn't work, she says, "Guys, I have a plan!" Then she details on an imaginary map, "Ok here is our house, and we are gonna walk walk walk over here, to the [neighbor's] house." Nice try Josie.

She even tries to convince us by saying, "I'm serious! I'm telling the truth!"

But finally she knows what to say. "God has a plan for me." We all busted out laughing because we knew exactly what she was going to say was God's plan.

Nice try Josie. You're so creative though!

On the Inside

Sometimes it looks like I have everything all together, but allow me to let you in on a little secret - I don't. Don't be fooled by how it looks on the outside. I don't try to be fake but sometimes it's just easier not to bring up what goes on inside my head. The secret is: I am insecure.

I change my outfit multiple times, hoping each time that the next outfit will make me look pretty.

I stare hard into the mirror, hoping that I am thin, fit, and beautiful.

I wonder if I'm a good wife.

I don't feel like I'm the woman of God I should be.

I feel very inadequate.

Don't blame my husband, he doesn't do anything to make me feel less beautiful or to feel like less of a wife.

Where these insecurities come from, I'm not sure. But I need help to overcome the lies and rise above myself and instead to fix my eyes on Jesus.

I don't write this to get your sympathy or compliments. I write this to be honest. I want you to see inside my head. I want you to know that I don't have it all together.