In honor of our 6th Anniversary….I give you my favorite picture of us from the courting/dating days. I think this would pretty accurately describe how our marriage has continued to go. Last night I dreamed I was on a roller coaster with a younger girl. I was trying to calm her fears and encourage her to let go and enjoy the ride. When I woke up, I remembered this picture. Life has been and always will be an adventure. Having Joe by my side continues to teach me to let the unpredictability of my life thrill me rather than terrify me. 

I could never share the names of ALL the people who have influenced our relationship/marriage, but today I thought I’d share about 5 married couples who invest into our lives and inspire us.

Mom and Dad have taught us that its never too late to follow your dreams. It’s okay to not know exactly where you’ll be in 5 years. Just keep pursuing the things you are passionate about. Embrace change in yourself, in your surroundings, in other people. Love love love those around you without judgement. 

Matt and Jenni have taught us that being silly is a healthy part of marriage. Also, that it is so important to continue to invest in the friendship you have with your spouse. It’s what we fall back on when things are feeling less than lovey-dovey at the moment.

Nik and James have taught us that open communication is so, so, so important. It’s vital. It’s not always pretty, but prying and poking to get to the heart of your spouse is part of the process, and when you finally have one of those major breakthroughs…its worth all the sweat and tears (and hopefully minimal blood, haha)

Bekah and Andrew have taught us the importance of spontaneous adventures together. Life is too short to settle into being a boring old married couple…there’s always a roadtrip to plan, a backroad to take, a river to cross (even if you slip on moss and fall on your butt in the process).

Tatiana and John have taught us that if an amazing opportunity knocks on your door….you pack your bags and jump on an airplane and go. You only have this one life, so do the scary. Do the intimidating. Do the impossible. You won’t regret it. People will probably think you’re crazy and they may even try to hold you back, but do it anyway. It will change you.

Thanks to all 10 of you. You have changed us and having you in our lives has spurred many conversations about the marriage we have vs. the marriage we want to have. And that’s pretty awesome.

edit: Joe and I aren’t together today. I’m ranch-sitting and he’s catching up on Etsy orders. We’ll be celebrating next weekend. But he did post this picture with the following message: “Nothing says love like math and an open hand. 6 years today. I love you, ladyhosen”

He’s been passing me notes with little “love formulas” on it since we first started dating. I’m “x” because I was “the unknown factor” when he started to realize he had feelings for me. I never thought math would make my heart flutter, but it does now.

WOOHOO!

We just reached our 100th sale on Etsy!!

You know what that means, right?!

It’s time for another giveaway!

We are very thankful to all of you for spreading the word and staying involved with what’s going on in our little workshop. We appreciate each of you! We have been completely blown away by the number of orders coming our way this Holiday season, and we are having a blast creating everything together while listening to Christmas music. It’s our happy place. To say a huge THANK YOU, we’ll be giving the winner of this giveaway one free item from our shop. ($50 or less in value)

My friend Beth (not Xanga-Beth!) (one of my bridesmaids, Beth!) is coming to visit me, so my house is extraordinarily clean and mostly decorated for Christmas, so even though I don’t have everything all how I want it yet, its getting closer!  I’ll start with this picture from the day we moved in.  My dad and Joe conquered all those moving boxes and furniture! Also, this is the first time we’ve ever had a garage which is AMAZING for Pioneer Artisanworks, since we totally outgrew our living room. 

The bedroom so far. My favorite feature? His and Hers closets! I still need nightstands, a headboard, curtains, art above the bed, and the vanity needs some love (it used to be a work bench so its covered in random spray paint).

The most unfinished room in the house, but the most useful…the office/guest room. I have so many plans for this room, but none of it is evident yet.

 The bathroom, with a mini Christmas tree.

The bedroom and office are both to the left of the bathroom at the end of another short hall. From the bathroom, the hall continues past whats supposed to be the dining room, which is where I have my hutch and an extra bookshelf for serving dishes. Then to the right of the hutch is our little outdated kitchen and the washer and dryer at the very end. There is a peekthrough from the kitchen to the living room…

We put our dining room table (scored for $30 at a thrift store) under the kitchen peekthrough window. We got this amazing branch off my parents’ property, and I’ve been collecting random votive glasses from Goodwill. All of these chairs are uncomfortable, so I’ll be looking at thriftsores and yardsales for better ones. I want them all mismatched and painted bright colors.

Glittery Christmas centerpiece.

We finally live in a house that lets me arrange the chairs exactly how I want AND Joe can sit close enough to the screen to go blind from video games (hahaha, jk). We’re both happy. The giant frame holds all of our favorite Center Median comics. We still need art above the TV, a rug, and an actual TV stand.

Here’s the kitties enjoying their corner.

Joe is eventually going to build an L-shaped couch to go where the bench is. It would help divide the room in half, and it will have a built in bookshelf on the back of it (which is why our books are all piled under the bench right now). I also need to figure out a curtain situation.

And I have a million and one more ideas to improve this little place….

I’ve kinda been missing from Xanga this month.  We did find a place, and we moved in a couple weeks ago. A cute brick duplex. It has a garage for our workshop and a guest bedroom/office.  We are happily spreading out into all the new space. I’ll have more updates eventually, but for now, stay safe tonight!

More words brewing. For now, here’s a jumble of pictures from lately…

Happy corner of my bathroom.

The BEST cookies in the world.

How to terrify Joe.

My friend Beth  is visiting. I told her I didn’t want to pencil her in, I wanted to SHARPIE her in. She’s the ONLY thing on my calendar that month so far. Yay.

We were on a sandwich kick for a while. Homemade bread (just white), avocado, tomato, onion…and not pictured was the turkey, provolone, and homemade pickles. Omnomnom.

I drew this for my nephew JJ. It is his dad’s “lightning truck” (I think it is a Ford Lightning? which has since been sold). Anyway, I looked at a pic of it, and took special care in adding all the details, since I knew he would notice. I was pretty spot on.  But I did get some feedback from JJ… he wanted to know why one of the tires was squished. hahaha. Oh well, I tried.

My new charger is finally here! Joe’s is turquoise. So, next time a charger frays to shreds there won’t be any confusion about where to place the blame. Actually, we’ll probably still blame the cats.

And lastly, Joe auditioned for the church Christmas play. He did get a small part, but turns out the practices will conflict with his classes which are starting up in a couple weeks. Bummer!

I noticed a new one the other day. haha

I should do a whole post on all the stickers on his guitar and case. It’s like a scrapbook, and its got some pieces of history from our relationship. 

I’m a little backwards.  I struggle with feeling depressed more in the summertime when the sun is hot and oppressive. So when the temps drop and autumn starts to creep in, I feel like I come back alive. My head feels clearer, I’m happier. My soul exhales. 

We drank so much iced coffee/tea this summer.  I’m looking forward to HOT beverages again!

So long, summer. You can keep your 100 degree temps. 

Joe was up for a raise back in July.  He’s in 5 year apprenticeship program at his job, and he had the opportunity to present his case and possibly skip ahead a year because of some previous experience he had related to his job.

 I don’t know if he punch danced or not (probably not) but they granted him his “year skip” and he got a little raise because of it!

The weather is changing. My heart is changing. 

Our apartment lease is up on Oct. 31st and we still haven’t packed a single box or found a rental house to move into.  I keep saying I don’t feel nervous about it, but I keep having recurring dreams that I am homeless. Logically, I know that is far from the truth.  There are plenty of places to pick from, we’re just holding out for something that feels special, like “home”. We want so many things in our first little house, but the #1 thing is to have a garage/workshop for Pioneer, because our living room is packed full of tools and worktables right now. It’s time to move on to bigger and better things. We’re going out all day Saturday and looking at a ton of places. 

I’ve had so many amazing conversations lately.  It’s exhausting, but good.

Here are some snippets from emails & texts with friends:

“I am excellent at finding the silver lining in my day to day life. I look at life positively that way. I love pointing out the small joys that we often overlook. I also am confident in the security of my eternity. But everything else? A journey. A process. The nitty gritty. That’s the hardest part.”

“Something I’ve learned about myself is that I have a tendency to hold in my emotions until I’m sure how something is going to turn out. I dont let myself “go there”. I don’t let myself feel joy or hope or sorrow or despair until I get to the end of whatever it is. Then the emotions comes flooding out. It’s unhealthy. My mom said I need to have more “maintenance cries” (cry a bit then move on) instead of holding it all in and then releasing the flood gates of emotions when they’re about to burst. Haha. I’m working on it.” 

“If something turns out good, I don’t want to feel silly for worrying. If something turns out bad, I don’t want to feel silly for having hope. “

“Is it possible to have hope for the future without also having to feel the pain that it might not happen? I have a feeling the two cant be separated and i think that’s why I tend to just distance myself from the whole idea of hopes and dreams. I’m working on changing that.”

This isn’t just about finding a house. It’s about broken relationships that seem unfixable. It’s about wanting to grow our family. It’s about wanting to settle in one place for a while. It’s about wanting to do so much more with Pioneer.

Joe told me the other day that lately he keeps having these mini epiphanies about his life, and it kind of makes him nervous because he feels like he’s being prepared for something big that’s coming around the corner. I was secretly feeling the same way. At least we’re in this together. We’re both changing and growing and stretching. I’m ready, but my voice and knees still shake a little at the prospect of the unknown.  I’m trying to let myself “go there” more often. To dream big. To hope. To not feel silly if plans change. To be okay with heartache because it means I was all in. 

I thought I had lost these pics, but I just came across them! These were taken at 3-Crosses Arena. I think it was Andrew’s first time there for bull-riding. It was cold and rainy. I sat on the covered bleachers with dad, eating nachos and taking poor quality video with a cell phone. I was terrified every time someone got out there on a bull. Andrew loves it so much, and it makes me happy to see him following his passion. I had to get cheesy and pull up this photo of him wearing his first cowboy hat ever. He got it for Christmas.

He’s the youngest, there are 10 years between us. I think he’s taller than me now, especially with his big ole cowboy hat and boots.  I’m going to miss him this year.