Wedding Week

Today the wedding countdown gets serious. We're down to 5 days. Wow. It is getting REALLY close and I'm so excited.

This afternoon James and I were able to get most of our packing for the trip to DSM done. Although I'm not living in the apartment yet most of the things I brought from DSM to PHX are there. We moved most of my stuff into the apartment Saturday evening because Sundays are always busy, Monday we needed to pack for the trip back to DSM for the WEDDING, and Tuesday we leave for DSM. So now I have just enough stuff at the place I'm living to get me through one more day.

Honestly, I'm amazed that the last two months have gone so quickly. I thought they would drag but they didn't. And now our wedding day is almost here.

Just a Simple Observation

One of my more recent observations is that I am still living in a place that gets excited about double digit temperatures. In Iowa because of the cruel cold winters people anticipate the warmth of hitting highs that are in the double digits rather than single. In Arizona because of the extreme heat of summer people anticipate the cool of lows that are in the double digits rather than triple.

More Adventures of Life in Phoenix

Friday evening was an unexpected adventure. The night before, James’s dad had called and invited us to dinner, telling us that he and Helen wanted to treat us to a train ride to Tempe and dinner at Monites, a fairly historical restaurant residing in a bit of a younger town. James and I accepted and met his parents at their home in the early evening so we could catch the train together. The ride to Tempe took about 25 minutes. We had fun talking about our week and his parents, the faithful tour guides, told me more about Tempe and Phoenix.

After we arrived at Monties Helen explained some of the unique architectural aspects of the building: the building was constructed before the days of air conditioning so the walls are about two feet thick to allow the building to stay cool during the heat of summer. The décor was made of paintings and newspaper clippings that depict some of the history of the area.

After the waitress took our order and we were served our drinks and the bread appetizer a waiter came to our table to tell us that there had been a bomb threat in the park across the street and that the police were there telling the management that the building had to be evacuated. Still hungry and wishing that we had been able to eat at least part of our meals we left Montes through the south exit as requested.

After we cleared out of the threat zone we ended up walking down the streets of Tempe to a different restaurant called My Big Fat Greek. There we were able to order and eat our food without threat of another bomb. Once we were done with dinner we left and rode the return train to Phoenix.

Saturday was still a fun day even if it didn’t include a bomb threat. I met James at his apartment at 7:00am so we could take our first bike ride together. I ended up riding his mom’s beach cruiser bike. The pink bike has no gears or hand breaks, if it would have had a banana seat and handlebar tassels and my trip back to my childhood would have been complete. James road a really nice mountain bike and kindly enough kept it in a higher gear to make our workouts be a bit more comparable.

After our two hour bike ride we drove to Gilbert, AZ to meet up with Brenda and Eric Bryson. It was SO NICE to see people from home. I haven’t really been dealing with homesickness, but not having friends in Phoenix is starting to get hard. BUT I know that as James and I continue to get connected at church I will be able to make friends.

Life in AZ

I have mixed feelings about time. On one hand I really want time to fly by until the wedding. On the other hand, I love spending time with James and getting to know him as his fiance. I feel like I've been living in AZ for months but at the same time it seems like I just got here yesterday. However quickly or slowly time passes is irrelevant though. It passes and once a moment is gone it won't be relived.

While all the time James and I spend together is special, there are a few moments that really stand out.

On Sunday, September 5 I went to the apartment to meet James before going to church together. He had asked me to arrive early so we could have breakfast. We had some extra time after we ate so we read the Bible together and prayed. After that he asked me to stand up, he got onto both knees and officially proposed. I know that this may seem backward since I have spent the last two months planning a wedding for October 30. But we wanted the official proposal to be face-to-face and not right after I arrived in AZ and was exhausted from a three day trip. James also wanted the proposal to be in our future home. It was the perfect proposal for us.

Last Saturday morning, James and I hiked up a mountain together. We went up North Mountain because it is one of the easier ones to hike and I've never hiked up a mountain. After we were done with our hike, we went swimming, and then made lunch together. It was another perfect day.

Sunday we went to church, washed the cars, made lunch, then drove to the town of Cave Creek. Cave Creek is the town where James's mentor used to live and James wanted to show me the house where he lived before passing away. Then we rented a movie and made dinner. While we were cooking, we lost power three times. During the spurts when we actually had power we were able to make things somewhat edible. The broccoli ended up a bit scorched because we turned the electric skillet temperature WAY up in hope that we could get it to cook while we had power. The cheese crisps turned out. We could have enjoyed a nice candle light dinner if we had candles. Somehow cell phone light dinners aren't as romantic - especially when you have to keep pushing buttons on the phones to keep them lit.

Monday was another good day. James had training so he didn’t get an afternoon break but instead he was done for the day by about 1pm. As soon as he got to the apartment we went to Julie’s house to pick her up so she could sign as our witness on our wedding license application as we got it notarized. Julie made it so much fun. She took her camera out as we were signing the paperwork. Once we were all done signing she asked the Notary Republic to take a picture of the three of us. She is a precious jewel.

I've hit a bit of a routine, my typical day starts out with waking up at Julie Crum's house, getting ready for the day, then heading to James's apartment. I do random things until he comes home for his afternoon break then once he goes back for the second part of his shift I do more random things until he is done for the day. During the average evening we will go for a walk, grocery shop, swim, spend time with his parents, or read together, etc. After that I head back to Julie's house to sleep.

Arizona or Bust pt. III

The third day of our trek was the best. Mostly because while we were on the road I was able to talk to James and we could say cool things like, "When we see each other later today." and "We're now in the same state."

The drive itself was beautiful. We went south on I-17 through Flagstaff, AZ. The mountain drive was incredible. But I have to admit that the last couple hours of the day were almost too much for me. I started shaking a couple times because I was getting so tired. AND although I was really tired God enabled me to safely make the rest of the drive, find Julie's house and get some things unloaded from my car, and then find James' apartment. And then REUNITED with my Honey!!!! YAY!!!

I'll update more later on my first impressions of AZ and other exciting things (including an OFFICIAL proposal) later when I have more time. But for now, here are pictures from Day 3.

Eric on Day 3.

Brenda on Day 3.

Me on Day 3 thinking "I get to see James today!!"

Somewhere in NM or AZ.

Arizona or BUST pt. II

This was the second day in my trek to Phoenix. The BEST part of my day was being able to talk to James for hours on the phone. Sure we would randomly lose connection because I was driving in the middle of nowhere, but it was GREAT to hear his voice. I'm SO EXCITED to see him TOMORROW!!! Today's drive was uneventful until arriving in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But let me start at the beginning before I come to the more eventful end.

We started our drive at 8am sharp. The rout that was recommended to us took highway 54 to I-40 to I-25 to the motel. We passed through the rest of Kansas, the "handle" of Oklahoma (Texahoma is a REAL place - we got gas there) and a bit of Texas before making it to New Mexico. We ended up stopping randomly in New Mexico for lunch. We didn't know what town we were in and when we stopped, we didn't even know there was a restaurant there. It looked like a gas station with a little shopper's mart attached. Even though the appearance of the restaurant was rustic and a bit run down the food was EXCELLENT and INEXPENSIVE. We asked the waitress what town we were in and she said Logan, New Mexico. So if you ever find yourself in Logan, NM and you notice their gas station, stop for food. Its great!

The drive went really well until we got to Albuquerque, NM. The drive through the mountains was beautiful as we neared the town. But also as we neared the town traffic began to pick up. After we merged onto I-25 and before we exited for the motel I was almost sideswiped about 3 times by the same truck. A couple minutes after that and after we exited the interstate I was almost rear-ended by a moving truck.

The mountains here are beautiful. They more than make up for the crazy drivers.

I managed to snap a couple photos today. I took the first one when we were starting out for the day. After that I randomly took a couple shots through out the day.

Starting out for the day...already looking tired.

Making our U-turn after the GPS freaked out.

Heading the right way again.

Arizona or BUST pt. I

Today was Day 1 of my trek to Phoenix and WOW am I tired. Driving all day really is exhausting.

My friends who are also moving to Arizona and I had planned to start our day at 6:30am at a restaurant in Clive, IA, but due to a random power outage the place was closed and we spontaneously came up with plan B - meet at Hyvee instead. A few other minor incidents caused us to leave town about 45 minutes after we had planned, but that really wasn't too bad.

What could have been a boring trip was made FANTASTIC by being able to chat with James for most of the day. YAY!!! (With the exception of my phone randomly losing all its service bars and dropping our connection.) I was also able to chat with my best friend, Chrissie, for a while too. Again YAY!!!

The drive itself was OK other than when we hit Kansas City. At a rest stop in Missouri we were told to take I-435 around Kansas City rather than go through the center of it on I-35 because I-35 had issues with a bridge and road construction. BUT the lady at the rest stop didn't know that a big chunk of I-435 was down from 3 lanes to 1 and that the ramp we needed to use to return to I-35 was closed. Thanks lady. You really made our drive better. Because of being at a complete standstill for a while on I-435 one of my friends was able to whip out his cameras and take pictures of interesting things like piles of rocks sitting on the side of the road and a speedometer reading 0 mph on the interstate. I was also able to take that extra time to text my family and friends, do my nails and take a nap. OK slight exaggeration on the nails and nap, but the texting and pictures really are part of our story. What made the limited lane access completely worth the extra time sitting on the interstate was that they really WEREN'T working on the road. The miles of construction cones blocking off the other 2 lanes were likely a strategic part of the KC plan to preserve the roads and not reconstruct or fix them. Brilliant plan.

We arrived at our motel in Pratt, KS at 4pm. At first I was disappointed that we wouldn't be covering more miles on our first day, but I didn't sleep well last night and I didn't use my air conditioner so I'm rather drained and am looking forward to going to sleep REALLY early tonight.

Once we got to the motel we walked to Walmart then got dinner at Taco Bell. We're now sitting in the motel updating our blogs, facebook, texting, etc.

Tomorrow we plan to leave here at 8am and should arrive in Albuquerque, NM around 6pm-ish.

I'd write more about today's trek, but I'm tired and at the point of losing coherence.

Big Changes pt. IV

In Big Changes pt. 1 I mentioned that right away after James and I started getting to know each other I realized that we would end up getting married. Thankfully James came to the came realization quickly after I did. In mid July while James and I were talking on the phone, as we do for anywhere between 3 to 4 hours a day, and we decided that October 30, 2010 would be the date for us to get married. YAY!!!!

Ever since that conversation I've been planning our wedding and preparing to move. My goal was to plan as much of the wedding as possible before I moved. THANKFULLY I have been unemployed and have been able to spend multiple hours a day focused on wedding details. I have to admit that I am somewhat impressed because in 6 weeks I was able to plan a wedding that won't take place for another 67 days.

Big Changes pt. III

Obviously, I have no idea what soon means. Sorry about the delay.

Here are some of the "little" details that God orchestrated in order to bring James and me together:

James put his condo on the market the same month I put my house on the market. My house sold within a few months while his didn't until AFTER I had moved away and come back. If his condo would have sold right away and he would have returned to Phoenix right away we wouldn't have met.

Although we first started talking at his good-bye party, James still wasn't planing to move for two weeks after the party. So we had a little bit of time to get to know each other face-to-face before James moved.

God timed things so that James and I would both be unemployed for his last two weeks living in Iowa. If either one of us would have been employed we wouldn't have been able to spend hours getting to know each other every day.

The weekend before James left, my immediate family was all in town for a niece's birthday party, my mom's birthday party, and Father's Day. Because of that, James was able to meet my family and it gave my family an opportunity to get to know James a bit.

My high school cheerleading coach moved to Phoenix about 14 years ago. Before they moved I was able to get to know her mom, who also moved to Phoenix. After James moved I knew that I needed to follow as soon as I could. My former coach's mom was told that I needed a place to live and offered to open her home to me. Her home is only 10 miles from James' apartment.

After finding a place to live, I needed a way to get to Phoenix. Obviously, I would need to drive. BUT I needed to get someone to make the 23 hour (actual drive time) trip with me. God timed it so that some of my friends from a former church would be moving to AZ only two months after James left IA and I will be caravanning with them.

BEFORE James and I met and after I move back to DSM from CR I had the gut feeling that I would move from DSM again but this time with only what I could fit in my car. Because of that I decided to start selling my bigger household items.

There are a LOT more details, but I'm not going to share them right now. Hopefully this post will point to God as being the one who pulled James and me together.

BIG Changes Pt. II

James and I had two amazing weeks of face-to-face time. Moving day came and he decided to postpone leaving so we could spend another day together. The next day came and he decided to postpone leaving so we could spend ANOTHER day together. Thankfully he had rented a trailer for a week so we were able to have more time without his needing to pay extra.

Since his move to Phoenix we have been able to spend a few hours talking to each other on the phone each day. I’m so thankful for the technology God has given us. I couldn’t imagine carrying on a long distance relationship back in the days of the Pony Express or carrier pigeons – the poor animals would die of exhaustion if they had to carry letters back and forth containing our conversations.

James and I have been praying about our relationship and where God wants us to head as individuals and as a couple. For now James is in Phoenix and I am in Des Moines but on August 29 I will be loading my car and moving to Phoenix. From there we will continue to wait on God’s timing and leading for the future.

God is in the details of our story. I’ve left a TON of information out so far in order to give you a quick overview of what he is doing in our lives. Details will come soon…

BIG Changes Pt. 1

So many wonderful changes have taken place in my life within this last month. My last post was a bit of a teaser. At the time I didn’t want to say too much, but now I can start to tell you what the verses have meant to me these last few weeks.

The first few days of June I was really beginning to struggle again with not knowing what direction God wanted me to head in life. I had been weighing the pros and cons of starting graduate school or of just finding a job and hoping that I wouldn’t hate it too much. But I have to admit that what I wanted most was to finally meet the “right” man. So I basically started to beg God to show me what he desired for my life. I also started to pray more boldly about my desires to marry.

A few days later: enter James.

On Sunday, June 6 I attended a church good-bye party for a man named James who was moving to Phoenix to be closer to his some of his family. I should probably admit that I had noticed James when I was visiting Grace Church before I moved back to Des Moines. (No, he wasn’t the reason why I decided to attend Grace after moving back - but it didn’t hurt.) James and I didn’t really talk much during his last weeks at Grace and my first weeks there. We didn’t even carry on much of a conversation at his good-bye party but after the party we ended up standing in our friend’s driveway chatting for about five hours.

After that night James had two weeks before he was planning to move. During those two weeks we ended up talking, hanging out, and/or Facebooking every day. During those weeks our thoughts went from “I could marry someone like him/her.” to “I’m going to marry him/her.” Wow.

For now I’ll leave the story hanging here. I’ll share more later.

Psalm 66:16-20

¹⁶ Come and listen, all you who fear God;

let me tell you what he has done for me.

¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth;

his praise was on my tongue.

¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened:

¹⁹ but God has surely listened

and heard my voice in prayer.

²⁰ Praise be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!

Zach's Birthday Party

Last Saturday I was able to attend a birthday party for my nephew, Zach. Most birthday parties for kids are fun, but I personally think that a kid's first birthday party is the best...even if it isn't something that they will remember.

My brother's and sister-in-law's camera broke so they asked me to be their photographer. I'm fairly certain that I wasn't given the honor because of my awe inspiring ability to capture the essence of a moment on film. I think I was the "lucky" one because I was there, had a working camera, and didn't have kids of my own to keep out of the way.

Here are a few of my better pictures from the day:

Moving Again pt 2

I just published that last post today even though I wrote it a few weeks ago. I moved back to DSM a little over a week ago. So far I have managed to stay busy by helping one of my sisters paint her new house. It's been a big project, but the end is in sight.

This week I'll start job hunting. I don't have to be in too much of a hurry, thankfully. I'm debating which direction to go: get a job so I have money coming in and start grad school or try to find a job that will give me some fulfillment and forget about school. Or who knows, God can bring up something I'm not anticipating. I think at this point, I'm hoping for that one. :)

Moving Again

So life in good old Cedar Rapids didn't work out like I had wanted. These last six months have been the most stressful of my life. I've never cried this much or been this confused or this hurt. But all of that really hasn't been a bad thing. I know I have changed as a result of dealing with disappointment and fear and all sorts of situations and emotions I didn't anticipate when I relocated. I've never been so broken and so whole at the same time.

God has taught me about trusting Him and releasing the future to Him. No matter what comes up in the future or no matter what doesn't come up in the future, I know I'll be OK. God is in control. And in the end, it doesn't matter as much what I do for a living as long as I do it for God and not myself. I'll be OK as long as I keep following God.

So after six months of being challenged and stretched and molded it is time for me to move back to Des Moines. It was a hard decision but I'm convinced it is the right one.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

NKJV

Lecrae "Far Away"

I'm not all that into rap, but sometimes there are exceptions...

Click here to get the song on iTunes. Proceeds go to rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

Interesting Thought

I don't know about you, but I'm an avid reader. Not only do I read multiple genres of books, but I try to keep up with various blogs. This last week I read an article that helps me have a different view of my life as my Creator God molds and shapes me. To read it click here.

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

Psalm 63

¹O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
³Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
⁴So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
⁶when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

English Standard Version