New Recipe and Travel

Let's start with the most random....

This past Monday I had a few friends over and I have been waiting forever to make this new recipe I found on Pinterest. It makes a 9X13 so I've been waiting for a reason to make it for more than just me and Daniel.

When I first tried them, I didn't think they were sweet enough (even though all my friends assured me they were very rich!). But I refrigerated the leftovers and they are AMAZING chilled. yum yum!

In very current news, I'm going to be in the States for about 2 1/2 weeks. I leave this Sunday. I know, crazy right?!?!?!?!? Here's the story:

BFF Caroline got engaged and is getting married June 14th. When we first moved here (a year ago TODAY), we agreed that when Caroline got married (she wasn't dating Shane when we first came), I would go back for the wedding. She had a whirlwind romance and was engaged in early December. 

That's when we started praying and asking Father to show us if I was to go home or not. The tickets were looking a little pricey and the trip to the states was pretty unexpected.

I knew we couldn't make any decisions until we found out about our taxes. Last year we ended up owing over $3000 (it was a complete shock!). I knew that if we owed anything at all this year we couldn't afford the trip back. So again, lots of prayer that we wouldn't owe anything for taxes and that I could find a really cheap ticket.

I guess it was about March maybe when we found out that we would owe "a little" in taxes, but needed to wait a week or so to find out the final amount. I was asking Father to really make it obvious through our taxes if we could afford for me to fly back to the states for Caroline's wedding.

A week later we found out, not only did we NOT owe, but we were getting a big enough refund that would completely pay for my entire trip!!!! PTLPTLPTL!!!!! I bawled like a little baby, and have continued to praise Father for not only His provision but for making it so clear through our taxes that He had provided and made a way. 

I was able to get a good ticket price (=lots of long layovers), and I leave this Sunday early am. I will fly into St. Louis and stay with my parents, then we'll drive down to the wedding in Arkansas. We'll drive back to their house where I'll stay for a few more days, then I'll fly to my sisters in Houston for the last week of June.

It's going to be a whirlwind, but also SOOO exciting!!! Father has continued to reveal how perfect this timing is that I go to the States. 

I have more stuff to share so I'll really try to post again tomorrow!

any other blog/twitter friends going to be at the wedding???

love

laura

weight loss problems

Weird topic, i know.

But i left work early this afternoon. I'm still not feeling well and if anything, worse. Rather than bore you with the details of my day and how many times i've blown my nose......we'll talk about how it can annoy me to lose weight sometimes.

Here's why.....

I bought all my work dress clothes around the same time....did i mention, it was also at my absoloute heaviest weight-wise. But i never liked buying clothes that were too tight, in hopes that i would lose weight and then they woudl fit. i'd rather just buy clothes that fit me.

Fast forward a good 6 months or so, and i've lose 20 lbs. whhooooo me! however, i'm also insanely cheap (remember Dave Ramsey) to just go out and buy new clothes. especially because i clearly remember how much i paid for my dress clothes just a few months earlier. and i'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for. I didn't mind shelling out the extra money for nicer clothes, because i knew they were quality and would last a long time.

They would last a long time if they fit me.

So i took them to have the waste taken in. Last week I took a pair of dress pants in for the THIRD time and the alteration lady told me she couldn't really do too much more bc the pockets were practically touching.

awkward.

and then i think about how much it costs to have pants altered 3 times, and in retrospect, i probably should've just gone out and bought some cheap dress pants. Another reason i'm afraid to do this though, is bc what if the weight comes back? what if i get hurt and can't run anymore? what if i start getting comfortable and gain 5 pounds back? which in the big picture isn't the end of the world, but it's a constant mind game i play.

i've never been a huge weight fluctuator to begin with, so my closet isn't really filled with several sizes. though that would be nice right now, ha!

I have been going back and forth between being annoyed that i am wearing frumpy clothes to work and excited about the weight loss. I hate working all day in clothes that are too big all over and feeling frumpy all day long. Which leads me to getting annoyed.

I read a blog recently and she mentioned more specifics about Dave Ramsey and their cash envelopes. I emailed her to get more details and i think we're going to start actually putting cash away every month into a clothing envelope, and that way i won't feel bad spending money on clothes.

We already budget every month for clothes, but rarely buy anything, so it has just stayed in the bank.

Those are my random thoughts for tonight......

Daniel bought me a milkshake to help me feel better, and as we all know...calrories don't count when you're sick :) And HGTV makes everything better!

but seriously, keep praying that i feel better. i'm starting to get freaked out about the half marathon on Sunday. i haven't run all week.

love

laura

i feel weird

i feel weird tonight. almost like i need/want to cry, but not really sure why. i had a good day...pretty normal. but now...weird.

We were visiting a church on Sunday-yes, we're church-hunting. and no, it's not fun. it's draining and wearing on the both of us. we LONG for community. we're so community/fellowship/good friend starved right now. i'm dealing with reverse culture shock (but that's a completely different and much longer post, ha!)

i've been back in the states a year. it was a year yesterday. in the last 12 months, i moved to a new state, planned a wedding, got married, started a new job, and i'm battling finding the 'home' in Oklahoma if you will.

Anyways, we were at a church on sunday and singing a song that i knew but now can't remember the name of. and the lyrics had something like 'i bring an offering to you' I stopped short. what was i bringing?! did i have an offering? if so, what was it, because i was drawing a blank on this one.

i couldn't sing. did i have anything to give my great God? i felt like i didn't. i felt like there was just nothing to give.
i was praying and journaling this in my QT yesterday morning. i wondered if my role as wife to Daniel was an offering. is my ministry to Daniel an offering? can how i love Daniel be an offering to God? i think if i stepped it up a few notches it could....ha!

not being involved in ministry and investing in lives around me makes me feel worthless sometimes. i struggle with the everyday life here in the states. i miss my home across the big pond....

on a positive note, i was reading one of my devotionals this morning, and it had Psalm 50:23

"The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me: the one who orders his way rightly i will show the salvation of God!"

I just kept reading it over and over. I really felt like God was telling me, bluntly might i add, to offer thanksgiving. to not only offer it, but to make it my sacrifice. if someone sacrifices something, that means it has to cost something. it doesn't come easy, it has to hurt or change them somehow.

i wondered how i would be sacrificing my thanksgiving as an offering to my Father.

then i went to the mall tonight. i can't actually tell you the last time i went shopping or to the mall. it was a little weird. remember, we're on Dave Ramsey.

sidenote: we did just pay off our car this past weekend 3 years early!!!!

but being at the mall was hard. watching people go into debt buying their first home on HGTV is hard. not just because i want to give them a copy of DR but also because i see things that i want. and i let that fill my mind. i compare. i want.

which is maybe why i'm in a weird mood tonight. i'm struggling with KNOWING that i'm blessed with way more than i really need, yet still wanting.

i was quickly reminded a few minutes ago of what i read this morning. I want to offer thanksigiving. I want it to be pure thanksgiving that i offer....not grudgingly, not false-humility, but pure sacrificial thanksgiving. easier said than done...but i'm learning.

life unexpected

Ya'll might remember a while back i talked about finances and how we were on the Dave Ramsey plan. While we may not be perfect at it like Sarah & Mike, we do pretty good.


Our marriage is much stronger and more enjoyable now that we are on the same page with our money. We got married without a lot of money, which made it easy to know how to spend it....bills! There are things that must be paid every month whether we like it or not.


But after reading the Total Money Makeover, we now have a budget, use cash for groceries, personal spending money, and any eating out. It's amazing how freeing it feels to pay for stuff in cash. I know using a debit card might feel the same, but i can't really describe the joy that comes with our little envelope system.


Which brings me to the point of my post.....unexpected finances! April was a killer month. I know it's barely halfway, but financially we're through. All of our bills have been paid, and we get paid this next week.


April almost killed us. We ended up paying MUCH more in taxes than either of us ever would've dreamed. Little things added to it, like going out of town, registration on a car, and having people in our home a few times. honestly when i found out about the taxes, i wasn't upset about paying. i mean it's pretty cut and dry if you owe or not. I was WORRIED because i had no idea how we would do it.


I instantly started praying daily that Father would provide. I mean, He KNOWS what our bank account looks like and the taxes weren't a surprise to Him.


I did our budget and realized we would be dipping into our emergency fund...aka savings. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal to use savings but we went to the bare minimum and our following Dave's instructions about it.


I have been tracking every dollar this month. On paper we should need to use a few hundred dollars from savings. But everything has been paid for this month and we didn't have to touch it!!!!!!

woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

We've seen Father's provision so many different ways this month. Little things like a friend unexpectedly treating to lunch, the lowest electric bill we've ever had, finding an extra $20 tucked away in one of the envelopes, getting a gift card from a family member. It's so cool to see how Father provided for us this month over and over, in little ways we weren't expecting.

To be honest, when i was praying for Him to provide for us financially this month, i was honestly just expecting a random cash envelope in our mailbox or something. no lie.

but He didn't work that way, and i'm very thankful. i'm thankful that He used other people to be a blessing to us. I'm thankful that it doesn't make sense at all that we were able to pay for everything this month without touching the emergency fund.


It really doesn't make sense. but that fills me with much more awe and wonder at how our perfect God takes care of us.

Another unexpected, is that Sarah went into the ER yesterday bc she was in severe pain and had a high temp. They did some bloodwork and said her white blood count was fine, so they gave her motrin and sent her home. She's still having a lot of body pain and is going back to the dr tomorrow.

i can't tell you the last time Sarah went to the doctor, if ever, the ER. She gets colds now and then, but i've never known her to realllly be sick. it's kind of weird.

She's planning on coming up this weekend to run the 5k with me. I'm praying that she'll be healthy enough. I'm really asking that all her pain will go away immediately and the fever will disappear.

i'll prob blog later this week about our weekend. we had a wonderful date last night and family is coming over for dinner tonight!

hope everyone had a good weekend and didn't swim too much in all this rain we've been having!!

love
laura

finances & football

So here's a quick recap of the last few days......though honestly i don't feel like i have much to write about. nonetheless.....

We headed back to work on Monday after missing friday because of ice and snow. The main roads were okay, but still a lot of ice by our house. The last few days we've seen icicles melting and snow slush everywhere.

i don't like snow slush.

It gets my pants dirty and wet along with my shoes. I wanted to wear my cute little black flats yesterday to work, so i wore my big brown shoes to the car, then switched once we got to work. of course not wearing socks made me freeze the whole day. ohhhhh the price of vanity!

Last night i made my FIRST roast using our crock pot. Also my first time to ever use a crock pot. My mom does this all the time, but when i was single, i never found the need to cook that much food for one person. now i have a male living with me, there is reason to cook more food! Also, roast, potatos, and carrots is my FAVE homecooked meal. it was also the last meal i had before moving overseas.

(this isn't my personal pic, but just to give you an idea and start your mouth watering)

We also invited our friend Jason over to share our pot roast experience. Let's just say i rock my own world. it was SO easy to make and delicious!! When Daniel told me dinner was good, i looked at him, and was like 'obviously'. hahahahaahahah I don't take credit really, but i like to pretend i slaved all day for that yummy meal. i just put roast, potatoes and carrots in with onion soup mix and water and let it do its thing for a few hours while i was at work. i'm so ready for tonight's leftovers!!

So what's going on in our lives??? Well, if you've noticed, i added a new book to my reading list. We are about halfway through reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

Mike (my brother in law) bought me this for my birthday, because Mike is obsessed with budgeting and saving-in a good way. This book is definitely in my top gifts ever list. Daniel and I are trying the monthly budget and envelope system for the first time this month. What's crazy, is that we both thought we were doing good. i mean, we didn't consider ourselves big spenders or ignorant on our financial state. BUT, after reading just a few chapters (and tearing up a few times-the success stories are amazing!), we both knew this book was for us. It's weird now. I tell Daniel all the time that i'm learning the value of a dollar. haha! I never realized how many little purchases i make without thinking about it-just because we have a few bucks in the bank. But it's also cool to feel in control of where our money goes. we're both pretty excited to see what happens. it's surprisingly fun!

I know that talking about money and finances can be a little hard for some people and awkward. i really hesitated about blogging about this, because i know it can be weird for some people. but i don't want you to see a blog about me that isn't really ME. i didn't want to have a secret blogger identity or anything :)

but don't get me wrong-i would never walk up to you and ask what your bank account balance is or how much you spend on eating out.....but i think it's safe to say Daniel and I both have Dave Ramsey fever.....so i might babble nonstop about what we've been learning and you can take what you want :) i know a few people who have used the DR plan and have done amazing things. i would love to hear your story!

p.s. We take turns reading the book out loud to each other-so fun!

Not sure if i'll blog again before Sunday.....but i am way excited about the superbowl.

Since the Packers are out, there's not a team that i'm dying to cheer for (but we're both going for the Saints). so if i can't rev myself up about who's playing, i might as well make yummy food to enjoy while we watch. I'm making homemade hummus (for the first time),  pizza, and a recipe i found for white almond wedding cake. i can't wait!!!