Into the Real World

Hairstyles

2009-11-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

More help with wedding planning. I want an updo for my wedding, (I sweat too much not to). I don't know what to do. I want to be able to wear a veil, possibly a tiara, and hopefully a blusher (the part that goes over your face). I don't find a lot of hairstyles that I like though. I don't want just a french twist, it's my wedding, I've wearing french twists FOREVER. Don't want a bun, I danced for 10 years. I want something that will still look pretty after (if) I take the veil off. I don't know. Any ideas? Please email them to me if you have any ideas as I don't want Aaron to see them obviously. Thanks.

PS. I hope I'm not turning into Bridezilla.

Need some help with ideas

2009-11-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the centerpieces for our wedding. We both would really like to incorporate photos into our centerpieces and DO NOT want flowers in the centerpieces. We were thinking of doing the photo cubes with pictures of us through the years, but they are only 2" by 3" and I'm not convinced now that they will be big enough. To be honest we will probably have about 30 tables but we don't want to pay an arm and a leg on centerpieces.

If you have any ideas PLEASE let me know.

Oh and by the way I have been busy planning for the wedding lately, and got terribly sick this past weekend (fever of 103 Saturday, 102 Sunday and finally back to normal today). I also have a terribly annoying cough that seems to think it is important to stick around. I disagree but we are fighting.

Anyway on a happier note, on Friday we heard that there is a 90% chance we will be having our wedding at Grace Church in McKean. We meet with our photographer this Sunday and we get to meet with the wedding coordinator from Grace Dec. 5th. Things are starting to come along. We are nearly certain we have our guest list finalized also (although my mom hasn't had input yet, so that may change but I'm hoping not as we are very near 350 people.) We picked out our colors of Sage and Grape (that's what the bridesmaid dresses are called). And I got photoshop for my birthday HOORAY! So I get to work on designing our invitations! HOORAY! I've always enjoyed trying to design things and I feel like it will be very special if I do get to design our invites. Thanks again everyone!

Slacking

2009-11-03T06:14:00.002-05:00

I have been so busy lately with wedding planning/cleaning my apartment that I haven't had a lot of time to blog. But I bought a wedding dress! YAY YAY YAY! It's gorgeous and was in my price range and makes me super happy! :)

Day 6 of the challenge. . .

2009-10-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

had a hard time today getting the pictures in, just didn't have a lot of time, the last 5 or 6 were done about 10 minutes ago.

Holly's Challenge Day 5 (Tuesday)

2009-10-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

Amidst watching SYTYCD, cleaning a bit, making dinner, and putting away groceries, here is what I came up with. Sorry it's not super great today. I have my laptop, Disney cup, fall leaves, our pumpkin we created today, Go Fish Guys (sometimes my sanity), a congratulatory card, Wegman's shopper card, and fall leaf decoration.

Day 4 of Holly's challenge

2009-10-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

Again I used Picasa 3 to create the collage. Today's is just a bunch of random things. The potatoes I made for dinner, the seasonings I used. R playing with her toy and the toy and it's shadow. My "Tastefully Simple" shelf. A veggie puff, the sunrise, cook books and a figurine.

Thanks for checking them out.

Holly's Challenge Day 3

2009-10-26T18:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry I didn't get to post these yesterday but here are the photos for day 3 of the challenge.

Included are MY Hat (don't listen to Aaron it's totally mine), the puppies, and the boys talking outside of church.

I used Picasa 3 to create the collage. It makes it really easy for me. Also the picture I used for the background is my car's inspection sticker.

Holly's Challenge Day #2 (Saturday)

2009-10-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

This morning Holly and I went out scouting places for the engagement photos tonight and stumbled upon some pictures for today's challenge. Here are my 9.

Memory Lane in Mead Park

Good for photos, not good for eating!

I just like this memorial for some reason.

she took me backdrop hunting!

cool moss covered log

Also cool for photo taking, bad for eating.

that's where we were. I love that place. A gem in Corry!

No idea what this is but thought it looked cool. I love the wispy leaves.

The decline of fall.

*Please remember all of these are uneditted. I'm borrowing Aaron's computer while he sleeps.*

Challenge: Day #1 (Friday)

2009-10-24T14:25:00.000-04:00

All of these photos are unedited as I'm on Aaron's computer without any editing software. Here are my 9 photos. Some I really like, some are just ok!

M holding her toes!

R looking at my ring.

We had pizza for dinner.

And wet corgis for dessert. . .j/k, I love them though and they thought they should have gotten pizza.

Duncan looks so different wet!

Court had to play with her mom's hair.

We bought soda

3 kinds of soda

Pictures of the day

2009-10-23T07:21:00.001-04:00

Used picasa to increase the shadows. These were just some mums outside of my apartment that I've been meaning to do this with.

Forgot

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-04:00

to post the original ring on the mum photo. I like the editted so much better. Here they are again for a comparison.

Just ordinary to me

Photo of the day . ..

2009-10-22T18:25:00.000-04:00

for the past few days.

sorry for showcasing my ring so much, but I love it! :)

Wedding thoughts

2009-10-22T17:24:00.000-04:00

So we are hoping to get married May 1, 2010. Right now we are hoping to reserve Grace Church for that day since it is very REASONABLE to have both the ceremony and reception there. AND we could have OUR pastor marry us. Which is EXTREMELY important to us. We love our pastor very much. But I'm not sure what we will do if that falls through. Finding a place within our budget for 250-350 people will be a challenge I'm sure.

Also I'm trying to find bridesmaid dresses for under $50, that are not too short and not revealing. Talk about another challenge. Modesty is very important to me. I know that in the end everything will work out but man I get stressed out so easily. I'm like already freaking out about a lot when I shouldn't be.

Now it is time for me to go though so that I can get together some clothing to wear for our engagement pictures this weekend. Provided I can do some laundry at some point tomorrow *wink wink* Holly?? I just don't feel like doing it at work tomorrow for some reason. Any suggestions of what to wear? I'm thinking an orange sweater with either jeans or a skirt, but it's not necessarily super flattering so I was thinking of bringing another outfit too but I don't know what. Probably another sweater, haha cuz I'm a dork like that :)

Details

2009-10-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

of the underside of a lady bug. . .

cleaning himself. . . both of these are uneditted.

Aaron and I are ENGAGED!!!!!

2009-10-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

Praise God, Aaron asked me to marry him this past Sunday and I said "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on!" Well there is more to it than that but that seems to be everyone's favorite part of the story. :)

I kinda knew something was up because he always gives me details about everything so when he said he did "errands online," I thought "ring???" Then he also asked about 5 times if this past weekend was open for Panama Rocks. But then he tried to trick me by saying he'd email InterVarsity to see if they wanted to go. And then he said why don't we ask Brandon. But anyway so he had me going both ways for a while. But regardless of whether or not it was a total surprise isn't important. IT WAS PERFECT!!!. . . and even better than that I get to marry the love of my life in about 6 months! AMAZINGNESS!!!

Anyway, we went to Panama Rocks in Panama, NY after church this past Sunday and we got there and I was taking pictures (it's what I do) and walking and talking to each other during the walk through the scenery. I was thoroughly enjoying just walking and holding his hand and having him lead me as I was a little bit unsure about it because the wet leaves made things a bit slippery. (Oh, side note: Praise God we got to go because the day before they closed due to 5 inches of snow!!!) But we had fun climbing on the rocks and taking photos and Aaron decided to ask me to climb down one rock that scared me and I was like no no no no no and so on. So I went around the other way and met him. Then we walked on a little farther and he asked to sit down since he was out of breath. (He had been sick and later told me he wouldn't have come if he hadn't been proposing.) Then, he said something to the affect (I don't exactly remember because I heard "lots of loving things, *don't cry don't cry, crap I'm crying*, saw him get on one knee, and open the ring box, with a gorgeous ring inside and asked me to marry him") But he said: Amanda, I love you very much and I always enjoy all of the adventures that we have together, and I know there will be many obstacles but that if we keep loving and serving God He will help us to conquer them. And I know we've been looking at all of these pretty rocks, but I'd like to show you the prettiest one I've found (as he gets on one knee). Will you marry me?" To which I reply "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on. I love you so much." And almost pulled him up off the ground to hug him as we both hugged and laughed and cried and greatness! The people behind us probably thought we were crazy and guess what, they wouldn't be wrong to think that.

We finished walking through the area and had fun taking pictures and hugging and holding hands. Then on the way back we got lost (see that whole adventure thing already kicking in.) But we figured it out and then we went and called our family and friends for about 2 hours to let them know before someone else did.

We are so thrilled and not really very far into planning yet, but it will come. I'm just so happy that I will be able to spend the rest of my life with Aaron, he is my best friend, my comforter, the one God has provided for me, my partner in ministry, my comedic relief (often), personal heater, confidant, and everything else good and great and wonderful. I love him so much. I'm so happy that I will be able to join in his family as well as I love them very much also. And I pray that my family will take him in as a son and love him too.

I would have posted more pictures of us together but when I took them off my camera I did it at Holly's so here are a few pictures of the ring instead. BTW, it's TOTALLY me!

All taken with my point and shoot also! :)

Macro Monday

2009-10-18T18:45:00.003-04:00

WARNING: Not all of these are great photos but I included them for some perspective reasons. The first two aren't very good quality. 1. It is a picture of BEE and yes, my hands were shaking a bit because I was literally 3 inches from the bee. 2. I got more confident as I realized the bee was dying because he had flown himself into the window too many times.

Honest his body isn't disassembled it just looks like it in this picture.

See, I told you it was still together.

Love the lighting behind his wings on this one. At this point I realized he hasn't tried flying at all since I've been sitting here and snapping photos, he's probably near dead :(. Even though I don't like bees, I still felt bad that he died from slamming into the window so much. :( Not that being outside would have been good for him. It snowed on Thursday (when I took this picture).

Last one of the bunch. Thanks for looking at my photos to see other submissions, go here

Sunday Stills: C is for . . .

2009-10-17T22:45:00.000-04:00

Country decor:

Do flies have hair?

2009-10-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

Why yes, yes they do. I found this out today when I took a picture of a fly that kept hanging around on the window. R kept trying to kill him :(. I felt kinda bad. She broke one of his legs off. Anyway here he is before the torture ensued. I'm just thrilled I got it to focus on him and not everything else outside the window.

So I'm posting the original and the edited version. There are only slight changes but I thought I'd make a note of them anyway.

I rotated the original, increased the highlights a lot, the shadows a little, saturated it a bit, and sharpened it a bit and got this.

Please click on the photo to make it larger to be able to see the differences.

Today was Train day

2009-10-14T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today R and I spent the morning building a train track. It was a bit hard because it wouldn't stay together. I had a hard tme getting good photos because R kept breaking it apart by stepping and sitting on it. haha

It was also a little hard because it made me think about my Grandpa who loved trains and Aaron's godfather "Pops" who also loves trains. It was neat and sad at the same time.

Birdhouse

2009-10-13T21:16:00.000-04:00

Here is today's submission for picture of the day.

Color

and sepia

Lunch and Gifts

2009-10-13T20:16:00.000-04:00

for Liz

Liz

Sally

Gift #1 Mug with assorted teas

Gift number 2 beautiful red sweater and tank to go under it!

Mrs. Ellis could open her own store.

2009-10-13T20:02:00.000-04:00

Look at how cute these few scenes are from Liz's family's house. The first picture is of Mrs. Ellis' baby shoes. So cute!

I made them sepia because I liked them better that way.

And then there is the WillowCreek collection. So beautiful. Can't tell if I like the one with flash or without flash better.

Liz feeding baby

2009-10-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Liz's birthday. We went to visit her for her birthday in Geneva, OH.

These first few pictures are of us forcing Liz to feed Aiden. Well she wanted to, but was nervous so we made her! :) hahaha

She looks like a natural doesn't she???

Burping the baby!

I like the natural photo better :)

Been slacking. . .

2009-10-13T16:06:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been slacking on the photo uploads. Hopefully tonight after work I'll be able to upload some but also be able to clean up my apartment as well, also hopefully I'll be able to watch So You Think You Can Dance. It is like my favorite show ever. I love it so much. But I really need to get my apartment cleaned up so that if I need to move when my lease is up in April I will have all of my apartment cleaned out of all the random junk I have.

Thursday Night at IV

2009-10-12T18:47:00.001-04:00

I've had a few people ask me how my talk went on Thursday night so I thought that I would just share with you what my talk was about and then share a little bit about how it went. On Sunday I was asked to speak for Behrend's InterVarsity's Chapter Fellowship, which I used to attend while in college. I was very excited (and nervous) to speak for IV. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to talk about and didn't really get too much insight until Tuesday when the staff was able to give me a call (I knew he wouldn't be able to call me on Monday.) John told me to talk about some of my experiences in college, to stick away from Bible gymnastics (making them flip through various texts at once), and because I'm an extrovert, I needed to write everything down so that I wasn't thinking out loud once I got there. Which is a good thing to tell me because I totally process things by bouncing them off of others. Anyway, I found out on Tuesday (?) that there had been NO WORSHIP *gasp* so far this year because only Michelle was on worship team. I was so taken aback that I decided to ask Michelle if she'd like help for worship team that Thursday. She agreed and so I also was able to help with worship on Thursday. Praise God, it's so awesome to be able to worship Him in song! Also I had it on my heart to bake cookies, which I did Wednesday night before So You Think You Can Dance.

Anyway on Thursday I got there early hoping to pray over the individual seats in the room but the room was locked (and it turned out being that room wasn't the one we were going to be using anyway that night.) So I just looked over my notes again and again, hoping I wouldn't ramble. When Michelle came, she, Molly and I practiced a little bit before it started. I felt so bad because apparently I'm not as good at hearing music as I thought I am, and I also have a tendency to sing higher than I should and considering it was all guys there that night it probably wasn't best but oh well. Praise God.

After setting up the room, singing two worship songs (How Great is Our God and All in All, if you care to look up lyrics), and passing out cookies, Jarryn prayed for me and then kinda gave me the floor. After introducing myself to those that didn't know me, I began by praying once again that the Lord would speak through me and into their hearts. And the following in italics is what I had brought as my message.

Let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start. I came to college wanting to learn more about God. I always believed there was a God, and thought that I was a Christian, I mean I prayed every once in a while, attempted to read my Bible a few times, and went to church very sporadically. Plus being a Christian is about being a good person right? WRONG! Anyway, I applied to Grove City College, and didn't get in, and cried, but that is ok it wasn't where God wanted me. I also applied to Mercyhurst and got accepted. So off to Erie I went. I remember packing my Bible thinking, "I might need this, don't know when or why but maybe I'll need it." I tried campus ministry but it did nothing for me. It just felt wrong, people fell asleep, the Rev. was a feminist, and it just bothered me for some reason.

In January I was invited to church by a friend of a friend, and after I had been rude to him earlier, I accepted the invitation. I went with him and recall thinking that the Nazarene church was SOOOOOOOOOO weird, and how I didn't really want to come back but yet I was intrigued somehow. I kept coming back until a month later, after I had been seeking God in His Word, I realized I did not know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Sure I believed in God and "knew" Jesus died for the sins of the world. Yet I didn't really understand that Jesus died for MY sins because of nothing I could every do. In fact, He died for my sins despite all of the terrible things I've done wrong. I didn't know that until Feb, 2005 when I went to the altar at that "strange" church and asked Jesus for forgiveness of all of my sins and prayed to accept Jesus into my heart. I now understood that Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven. And somehow He chose to save me and promise me the gift of eternal life? This was UNFATHOMABLE! I was so excited I had to tell EVERYONE! So I did. . . oops, big mistake. This caused a lot more harm that it did good when I came home to tell my family if they didn't repent and accept Jesus as Lord they were going to Hell. Hmm, not so gentle. Trust me as a new believer I made PLENTY of mistakes.

Well now that you know my salvation story, please open your Bibles to Acts 2:42-47. Now, I asked them at this point to open up their Bibles, and having been in InterVarsity, I knew most people wouldn't have a bible with them so I brought some of my own along to hand out. Also I told them where they could get some bibles if they needed one. I asked for volunteers to read, but no one did so I read this passage of Scripture: " ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

At this point I asked some questions and allowed time for answers from the students. What do you notice this body of believers devoted themselves to doing? ***Although I allowed time for them to answer, I am just going to type out what I had written down as notes.*** 1. Apostles' teaching. Guess what? We should be studying God's Word. It is important for our chapter to study God's Word in order to survive. Now time for a story. In the spring of 06, I went to Chapter Focus Week in the upper peninsula of Michigan with 11 people I didn't know on an 11 hour drive because they were from Grove City and I was the only one from Mercyhurst to go. One day it was just John and I talking about what the Mercyhurst chapter would look like the next year. He said I would be doing prayer and welcome and follow-up, which made sense to me. It did NOT include me leading Bible study. After all, I thought, "I'm just a baby Christian, I've only been a Christian 1.5 years." Well, in the fall of that year, I ended up leading Bible study as others were unwilling or not lead by the Spirit to do so. Praise God for using me despite my incompetence. But I only say this to encourage you that even if you feel like you may not be able to do something, if the Lord calls you to it He will equip you for that ministry.

2. Fellowship - What is fellowship? Can we have fellowship with unbelievers? Not really, we can spend time with unbelievers and enjoy that time spent together but it's not really fellowship, it's ministry. And ministry can be DRAINING which is why it is so important to commune with the saints/other believers.

Another story. After my sophomore year of college, I felt so alone because I was at home without my InterVarsity friends to support me. I struggled to have my quiet times, and struggled with loving my family as Jesus would love them. But, once every week or two, a good friend named Aaron would call and talk to me about the Scriptures and life in general. It was through his friendship that Christ helped me through that summer.

3. Breaking the Bread - Communion is a church institution and so we won't really talk about that tonight.

4. Prayer - Here is where I will spend the most time because it has been THE most crucial part of my walk with Christ. It is through loving my roommates and lots of prayer that 2 of them came to know Christ (one was already a believer.)

I would like to share the following story to encourage you to be bold about your faith in Christ.

During a spur of the moment prayer meeting, my roommates and I put dinner on hold, thinking it would be like a normal prayer meeting lasting about 15 minutes or so. The Spirit had other plans. One of my roommates was raised religious and had gone to the Catholic church all of her life. Like myself, she thought she was a Christian. She knew many of the answers about Jesus but didn't really know Him. During this prayer meeting, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to ask my roommate to accept Jesus as her Lord ans Savior. I was TERRIFIED! I'd only been a believer for a year! I couldn't lead someone to Christ (obviously this is true because He does the leading, but still I was so afraid.) I looked at my other roommate who had been raised in a Christian home and she was nodding at me. Now remember, we were in a prayer meeting, our eyes shouldn't be open at all. At this point I knew the Spirit was moving and said, "Lord, Here we go." I led my roommate through the sinner's prayer that night. (Admit that she was a sinner, and ask God for forgiveness. Believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. His blood was shed to pay for her sins. And finally Confess with her mouth that Jesus is Lord and choose to follow Him.) What was supposed to be a 15 minute prayer meeting in our minds, ended up lasting a few hours because after we finished praying there was much rejoicing. (Including jumping over couches.)

Now, let me take a moment, and back up to explain how this was also a miracle. For about a year, this roommate and I in particular hadn't had a great relationship, most of which was my fault because I was in a TERRIBLE relationship where I had been hurt more than I could bear. And when I needed my roommates most, after finding out my ex had done something terrible against me, they would hang up when I called them. Finally I ended up breaking up with my ex boyfriend but things were not going well for my roommates and I. So, at one of the IV overnighters, I knew my roommates were pretty much fed up with me, and I didn't even know where I was going to live the next year. I went into the sanctuary, (where I wasn't supposed to be, but knew I needed to be there) and threw myself down on the ground and asked Christ to forgive me for all of my sins that I had committed in that relationship and against my roommates. I came out after that time of prayer with tears in my eyes and went and hugged each of my roommates and personally asked each of them for forgiveness because of how I had treated them. God performed a miracle that day in our lives. We became such great friends that we still visit each other a few times a year.

So please be encouraged that prayer does work.

Now moving on, "They came together with GLAD and SINCERE Hearts. Praising God and He added to their numbers daily those being SAVED!" At this point, I asked some reflection questions. I gave the members a chance to examine their own hearts. "Are you really glad and sincere to come together?" "Are we loving each other so much that unbelievers are wanting what we have?" Take a few moments to pray through these things on your own and I closed in prayer after a few minutes.

After this I broke the group down into groups of 4 and asked them to pray for one 2-3 of each others needs.

It was so awesome to be able to speak at CF. I also had brought some resources with me and one student ended up taking home a Bible and a Bible study guide with him Praise God. Another student also asked to take home a Bible. I was so thankful that God had worked in that way. Also I had a few students thank me afterwards in email for speaking. Praise God that He could use me to reach Behrend's campus.