Living Life

There are a million things to be worrying about in life right now

But guess what 

I'm not going to

I'm going to live. Life is such a beautiful gift. 

As I was driving today, I was overwhelmed by something simple, yet profound.

I'm alive. 

God has protected us each and every time we have gotten in a car and driven, each time we go out, each time we do ANYTHING really. 

Were alive and living.

Life can be tough, it can be exhausting and overwhelming. Lee and I are especially feeling the strain of life right now, but I am choosing (against my human nature) to live life and to love it. 

In the bad and in the good. 

It is a blessing

via

I am back!

Wow... I feel like I've missed so much in blog world! 

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone again!

I had a wonderful time in PA. It was quick but still so enjoyable. I love being with my family, each time I'm with them I'm just reminded how much I love and miss them!

 I'm so extremely thankful for them. 

I was so excited because my Mom came back home with me. It was her first time seeing where we live, I had such a great time showing her around. We always have such fun times together... it, also, was too quick, but I loved the time that we had. 

 We took her to the airport this morning. It's so sad to see my mom go. There are very few things I love more then being with her. 

So... I am back HOME with my Lee. I hate being away from him, but it is so nice to be missed :) Its amazing how a little time apart makes you feel so much closer. 

Thank you for all your well wishes on my last post :) 

I'm feeling so grateful for the beautiful people in my life! 

via

mmm.... I could so go for a stroll on this little street with my man right now :)

***So I just realized something... if you look at that picture close enough... you see a little black sign right below the American flag and guess what it says?! 

Lee 

Ha! how weird! 

Headed North...

So I'm flying out tomorrow to go to Pennsylvania-

It was a pretty random, spur of the moment thing... I'm getting some things taken care of up there and then I shall return in a few days probably! I'm really excited to get to see my family for a few days!

 This will be the first time Lee and I have been apart since getting married!
 Oh how I will miss him! But the return will be so sweet :) 

Have a happy weekend! 

I'll be back soon! 

ilovehoneylace via Stephanie Crane

Wanna know something?

I have a really good, easy salsa recipe!

 Well... technically I stole it from Chipotle, but still, its super good!

Basically its just: 

Tomatoes 

Red Onion 

Cilantro 

Jalapeno Peppers

I don't really know how much of each thing your supposed to put in. {I know... I'm so helpful}

but its salsa... so just do whatever you want! 

Just make sure you cut everything up into small little chunks and wa la! Its soo yummy! Those are like the best tasting ingredients ever together. And I don't even add anything... I guess if you want salt you could add that... you choose! Oh.. and if you don't like your salsa too spicy, be sure not to put too many jalapenos in it. 

Also, if you want to get super healthy you can use these: 

I promise they taste really good! 

And you can hardly tell the difference between the regular ones and these

_________________

Anddd wanna know something else?

You see that l&b up at the top of my blog? 

Well... I drew that on a piece of paper and made it my header, isn't that cool?

& 

Also! Today Lee and I have been married for 8 months! Woah! 

Sigh..... what a wonderful day that was :)

on Friends

So, between getting married at 19, moving far far away from where I grew up, and living a life pretty 'different' then what's 'normal', I don't really have many girlfriends. 

I never realized how much a good girlfriend does for the soul until quite recently.

When I got married, it seemed like a lot of the friends that I did have sort of backed away. I think that they felt like they couldn't relate anymore, or maybe they just felt like it would be too hard to be friends with someone in such a different stage of life now

And that's understandable.

Although, I promise I'm still the girl who wants to stay up all night and chat with a friend :)

Anyways,

 I was left wondering if I'll ever make good friends- I'm so young... its rare to find other couples that are married so young, you know? And not very often do you find another couple who desires to live the same sort of life we want to live. Also, Lee and I are travelers. You never know where we'll be the next year let alone the next month.

But guess what? 

God heard me. He granted me a way to have so many beautiful friends- 

Through blogging

I realize this may sound silly to some, but seriously, I can't even express how BLESSED I am because of all of you. I went from feeling sad about not really having many friends... to feeling so excited to know all of you. You guys are a HUGE part of my life. I'm so so thankful for all of you.

 I really do love you all so much! 

Three things I've learned: 

one.) God really does care about the little things. like giving me a bunch of awesome girlfriends :) 

two.) We all need girlyfriends

three.) My bloggy friends mean a whole lot to me

{via} from Jesse Peak

My husband : Creative

Creative, he is! 

Look at what he made for me: 

{turn volume on & enlarge the video for the full effect}
for some reason the quality isn't very good... but you'll still get the idea

Is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen?! 

I'm thinking we'll be seeing many more of these fantastic vid's in the future!

that is, if I can get him to make another one... it was rather time consuming. ha

Yay for having a super talented/creative/adorable hubbs :)

Go and Do

Lately I've been thinking about how I want to be better 

I want to be more respectful to my husband, I want to show him love when I don't feel like it, I want to be a better friend, I want to be more patient, I want to show more self-control, I want to be totally faithful to the Lord, I want to be in the Word way more than I am, I want be a better steward of my time...

and the list goes on 

There's so much that I want to improve about myself, so many things that I want to change

And sometimes it easier to just sit and think about how I want to be better then to actually actively do something about it

But today I'm deciding to stop wanting and to start DOING

So thankful for second chances from such a gracious Lord 

and for a husband who loves me faithfully through all of my imperfections 

{via}

The Blair Affairs

So you know when you find someone in the blog world and it feels like you are just meant to be friends? 

Well.... Jennifer is mine :) 

I feel as if we are kindred spirits in just this short time of knowing her! 

Jennifer is headed to Ethiopia in October for a mission trip but she still needs some help! 

So I think you all should head over to The Blair Affairs

She's selling ADORABLE vintage headbands to raise some money for her trip 

Wow... super cute homemade headbands for a good cause?! 

I think so! 

go here for more details! 

I know she'd be so blessed for you all to help her out! 

Our first fourth of July!

I love how EVERYTHING around here is a first :) 

After I excitedly announced that this would be the FIRST 4th of July married.... 

Lee smartly replied, 'oh my gosh... tomorrow will be our first JULY 5TH married'

meh...

So yesterday was super fun

We started the day out just chilling and playing games

 {we seriously play games all the time}

Later on, we packed up and headed to the pier... I had read somewhere online that its like THE place to be on the 4th around here. 

So we followed the commands of the internet....

anddd had a wonderful evening on the beach- it was soo fun 

we swam, ate yummy food, took a walk on the beach, people-watched, and played games again on the beach while we waited for the fireworks! 

There were a TON of people ... I seriously don't think I've ever seen so many people on the beach!

This was the first time I've watched fireworks right over the ocean ... it was so pretty 

All night I kept telling Lee that it felt like we were on our honeymoon-

we are SO blessed to live in such a beautiful place for this chapter of our lives 

{tonsss of people... and this was just a fraction of them!}

{take note of who won}

{they shot the fireworks right at the end of the pier... it was really cool!}

Such a great 4th! 

Hope all you lovelies had a wonderful weekend :) 

P.S. can I just say that I love my husband oh so much 

L&B Mugs from Anthro

So, I said yesterday that we went to Anthro for the first time a few days ago 

The thing that I think all of us girls loved most were these adorable mugs that we found 

They had all different colors and letters and were so so cute 

I love mugs 

but even better... mugs that have letters on them! 

I didn't buy ... BUT I did take a few pictures, just as good, right? ;)

and believe it or not they weren't $100 .... just $50 

ha... just kidding they were only $8 

;)