home sweet home!

we love our house! it's more spacious than we imagined, its got cute old-style character, it's just for own little family, and it has lots of storage (tom is very excited to use one of the bedrooms as a storage room- we didn't get a house with a garage but this very well might be almost as good. he's got his tools, camping/survival gear, surfboards, snowboard, etc. in there). thank you Lord, for the roof above our heads!

i've been on a huge organizing kick (praise Jesus for the energy to do this, and the fact that i actually really like this kind of projects) while tom has been working really hard both inside and out. he discovered we actually have a sprinkler system that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time- but he fixed it and it works!

here are some pics of some of the rooms that are set-up so far...

**notice the aqua tile--it covers the floor and goes halfway up the wall. under normal conditions this would have made me puke a little in my mouth, but no! it matches the decor we already had that was chocolate brown/tealish-aqua. hallelujah!

these leather (possibly pleather? or vinyl...) armchairs were a mere $25 at the outdoor rec center on base. apparently when the air force hotels remodel, they give them the stuff to sell for cheap. who knew? anyway, they work perfectly for us. AND, our good friend shawn found that lovely black armoir thing on the side of the road. FREE.

oh yeah, and the celebrate our first real meal in the new house.... drumroll please!...

my AMAZING husband made sushi for us. YES, real sushi, with the sticky rice, salmon, seaweed, wasabi, and everything. he's cool like that. i'm blessed, i know! all i did was make the sweet rice topped with mango and coconut milk for dessert.

DELICIOUS!

roll it!

the whole set up. there was some pretty amazing teriyaki chicken as well.

the sushi was so divine, it had me all delirious so i was trying to eat imaginary stuff when it was gone...

movin'!

tom and i are moving to our very own base house today! this is so exciting! please pray for our quick and efficient relocation and for the Lord to bless our first home together. may it be a place of love, peace, and growth together in Him. Amen!

Tom's b-day, our base house, and milkshakes!

we celebrated our first birthday together last week! tom, older than me by a mere 8 months, had his special day. we celebrated by going out to a special breakfast at black bear diner, just husband and wife (their 7-grain almond pancakes are amazing), and wandering around the bass pro shop (it is super cool in there! and tom got a piece to fix his sling shot). then, The Family J prepared us a super dinner of carne asada (sp?), homemade guacomole, and some brews. Then we enjoyed the cake my neices and i had made. it was tons of fun!

we are slated to move into our very own base house at the end of next week! although its an old house, it's OURS and we couldn't be more excited!! God is so faithful to us! we chose this one versus the other one because it has a real tree and rose bushes in the front, it is 3 bedrooms instead of two, and it has a grassy front and back yard!! Very cool for Vegas, where the norm is palm trees and gravel.

and finally, today while i was nannying for my nieces and nephew, we made our snack together. chocolate-peanut-butter milkshakes. mmm-hmm. very healthy, i know! we had fun and they loved them. the proof is in the pictures.

the first dance

tom and i took choosing our first dance song very seriously! we threw a lot of ideas around, and eventually settled upon the perfect one-- "rose of my heart" by the great man in black himself- mr. cash. the dance was perfect! it is one of my favorite memories from the big day, and i'll always cherish it.

here are the lyrics:

Rose of My Heart by Johnny Cash

We're the best partners this world's ever seen

Together we're as close as can be

But sometimes it's hard to find time in between

To tell you what you mean are to me

You are the rose of my heart

You are the love of my life

A flower not faded nor falling apart

If you're tired, rest your head on my arm

Rose of my Heart

When sorrow holds you in it's arms of clay

It's raindrops that fall from your eyes

Your smile is the sun come to earth for a day

You brighten my blackest of skies

You are the rose of my heart

You are the love of my life

A flower not faded nor falling apart

If you're cold let my love make you warm

Rose of my heart

So hard times or easy times,

what do I care?

There's nothing I'd change if I could

The tears and the laughter are things that we share

Your hand in mine makes it good

You are the rose of my heart

You are the love of my life

A flower not faded nor falling apart

If you're tired, rest your head on my arm

Rose of my Heart

some of the photos of our dance taken by patrick a. wilson:

bracing for the dip

tom's filled my dance card for the rest of my life!

we're married!

my groom's got moves!

tom and i were married on august 16 and we were amazed at how smoothly it went. besides some excitement the day previous involving a missing wallet (thanks to our groomsman mr. p for finding it!), everything was beautiful, exciting, extremely fun and amazing.

we are back in vegas now, and will be getting our first base house in about a week and a half. praise God! He set it up so that my husband and i could pick from two on the day we got here!

we have been enjoying every moment of married life. i love falling asleep and waking up next to tom. i love the ways that we are growing each day. i love that we are learning more each day about each other, our relationship, God's love for us.

hopefully in the next few days i'll post some more pics of the week leading to the wedding, the wedding!!!, and our awesome honeymoon. for now, here are a few to enjoy. patrick a. wilson, our photographer, is amazing (can't you tell?)?

the kiss