It's been awhile....

For my avid blogger friends, clearly I have majorly slacked. It's been a little over a year. HOLY COW. A lot has happened in the last year. Let me recap a few highlights. 

1) I got a new niece on Matt's side (Little Miss Daylin Rose) 
Matt got accepted into NKU and started Law School (not sure how excited I am about this)
2) I got engaged (whooo-hooo) 
3) I attempted to plan a wedding (that was stressful fun)
4) I got a new foster niece and nephew on my side (which will soon be adopted!)
5) Matt had finals
6) I got married (yay)
7) Matt had more finals (poor timing/planning on our part...like seriously who accidentally plans their wedding in the middle of LAW SCHOOL FINALS WEEK?! We do. Not highly recommended.)
8) I moved in with a male (overall an interesting experience) 
9) I got my 14lb dress dry cleaned (about 7lbs of it was mud)
10) I got a sinus infection
11) I got sick with strep throat and a puss infection on my left tonsil
12) I got an ear infection 
13) I got three UTIs in two months 
14) I got bronchitis and an inflamed lung
(all of these illnesses happened back to back, starting at day 2 of marriage and carried over until last week.)
15) We had a second reception in Indiana ('twas lovely!)
16) I began unpacking my garbage bags of clothing into an actual closet
17) Matt is currently going through finals and will soon be done with his FIRST year of Law School (they say that time flys when you're having fun but it feels like it's been five years not one...so clearly we are having a blast.)

Hopefully I'll have more time, motivation and be a little more diligent about actually blogging. I've said that a lot, but this time I truly mean it! I have so many topics I want to blog about! The proposal! Wedding Planning! Law School! House Decorating! Married Life! Ahhhh so many things to blog about!! Probably none of them are relevant to you, or that you even care about, but hey, this is my blog. I do what i want. 

Have a lovely week people, I'll be back soon!
xo-B

Matty and Me

WARNING: This post may be a little more in-depth, mushy and personal than usual, so I apologize to any random stranger that stumbles onto this blog post, but this is a part of my life that I am so thankful for and really wanted to share from my heart! In my last blog post I mentioned how Matt and I started dating last June, and many of you have asked to hear more about our story, so bear with me as I try to summarize it as much as possible!  

Some of you already know me very well, and maybe some of you know Matt. But for those of you who don't know me personally (apparently there's a woman from Texas that reads my blog!? Hello lady from Texas!) I will do my best to explain my background a little bit without boring the people that already know me! 

I've been going to Landmark Church for almost three years now. It was there that I joined a small singles bible study group (containing about 20ish people), and about six months later, Matt joined the group as well. The first night he came to bible study we didn't talk hardly at all except going around in a circle and introducing ourselves via first name. He didn't phase me at all; just some random new guy wearing a stupid Packers t-shirt. When I was leaving I didn't even say goodbye to him...does that prove how much I was not attracted to him?! As I was grabbing my purse and keys, Matt was talking with someone and I overheard him say something along the lines of "the pigs at my house"....I grew up on a hog farm so I have this weird attachment with pork and I may or may not have a monthly newsletter subscription to PorkNetwork. I immediately spun around and yelled across the room "You have pigs?!" I wish I could say it was love at first mention of bacon, but it didn't exactly go like that. Matt and I had a short conversation regarding the pot-bellied pig that lived on his parent's tiny farm and then I left.

That night, I could literally not get Matt out of my head. I wasn't attracted to him or crushing on him and I wasn't freaked out by him; I was just feeling very strange about him. Overwhelmingly strange. I just had this overwhelming desire to talk to him and get to know him better. Some people say that they knew they were going to marry someone the day they met them. I wasn't quite there, but I was 95% there. It was the most interesting-exciting-terrifying emotion I have ever experienced. 

Over the next few months Matt was consistently attending our bible study group and joining our weekly group frisbee outings and we continued to get to know each other better. Our bible study group is a very tight knit group of friends and Matt meshed perfectly with all of us; the group is absolutely wonderful. At first, I just really enjoyed getting to know Matt and see him interact with our group. He was genuine, smart, non-judgmental and very easy going and I truly enjoyed our friendship. After a few months I noticed that he started to make a bigger effort to sit next to me at bible study, or he would go out of his way to be able to stand next to me or be able to talk to me. Honestly, it really scared me. I was comfortable being his friend, but I felt his actions were suggesting otherwise. Matt is an extremely easy person to read and I immediately knew what he was up to, and it concerned me. I wasn't sure if I was prepared or ready for that, so I did the only thing I thought would work...I completely ignored him. And of course it didn't work. Apparently Matt was more pursuing than I expected him to be.  

As I noticed Matt and I becoming closer, I brought it up to my parents. They were visiting me in Cincinnati for the weekend and we had a lot of great, in-depth, meaningful conversations regarding relationships. I cannot begin to explain how supportive, encouraging and prayerful my parents have been for me, not only throughout my entire life, but especially through this dating process! I can't imagine their thought process as they see their rambunctious-dangerous-crazy-adventurous daughter run off to the big scary city of Cincinnati to study artsy stuff and then start talking about boys. I mean, boys have cooties, if that were my child I'd bring out the shotguns big time. Just sayin. But seriously, my parents are the best. Not a day goes by where I'm not thankful for them and their unconditional love and overflowing support. 

At this point it had been over three months since I had met Matt, and over the next two months Matt and I proceeded to discuss more in-depth the possibility of a relationship. We both prayed about it earnestly for months, and since we are both very close with our Pastor at church, Matt and I both met with him separately on many occasions to seek out wisdom to beginning a godly relationship together. During these few months, Matt and I hashed out a lot of major topics to prepare ourselves for a relationship. The most important thing was that both of us wanted the intentions of our relationship to be for the purpose of preparing ourselves for marriage.

It wasn't until after many Many MANY conversations about marriage that I realized how attracted I was to Matt. Usually relationships start with physical attraction, then lead to the talking/emotional connection, but I'm thankful it was opposite for me. I know sometimes people can get caught up in physical looks and that can really hinder God's direction for one's life, but in my situation, I was 100% peaceful about beginning a relationship with this man before I started to develop those feelings for him. I love God's perfect timing!!

One evening, Matt and I met my parents halfway between our respective places of residence to eat dinner together. It was then that Matt asked my parents for their permission to pursue a relationship with me. It was such a sweet notion on Matt's part, and it was so neat to experience my parent's blessing. 

Lucky for Matt, he is very pursuing, determined and stubborn (but not as stubborn as me!)....it took him FOUR times of asking me to be his girlfriend before I said yes. (I'm just a LITTLE stubborn).

He has become my best friend, my gym buddy, my person-i-drag-to-the-grocery-store-with-me-when-i-don't-want-to-go-by-myself person, my prayer partner, my secret keeper, my coffee picker-uper, my favorite person in the world and so So SO much more. I am so incredibly blessed and thankful that God put him in my life in His perfect timing. God's perfect will for our lives, and His perfect timing is always way better than what we want for ourselves. It took 23 years to wait on God's perfect timing, but waiting for God's chosen man for me was worth it! 

(my tripod makes a really great photographer, don't you think?)

I couldn't be happier or more blessed! God is so good!

Much love, B

let's catch you up!

OH. MY. WORD. 
it's been over a year since I last blogged. OVER A YEAR. 
that is super ridiculous. like absolutely insane. 
it's been so long that I hardly remember how to make a post! However, I'll try to share a few highlights of each month just to catch you up a bit! And from here on out I will try to do much better at blogging! 

January 2014

My boss decided to close down the business and I was going to be out of a job. But then at the last minute someone bought the company and re-hired me. Not jobless anymore. Yay!

February 2014

My first neice, Selah Rose was born! Now she's almost a year old because that's how pathetically lame I am at blogging. But the aunt life is treating me well, thanks for asking.

Also, I met a dude named Matt. He's pretty cool. You will for sure hear more about him later.

March 2014

The last few months were spent working lots of overtime at the stationery store. Lots of re-organizing, painting and designing our new lines of stationery. We had a Grand Re-Opening of the Store to celebrate our new owner! 

April 2014

I turned 23. Whoop whoop. Not much exciting. Just another day in the wonderful life of Bethany.

May 2014

I ran the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon. That is 13.1 miles people. Why did I sign up? I have no idea. How did training go? Training kicked my butt. Was the race terrible? Yes. Was I extremely sore for 6 days afterwards and go through 10 bags of ice and 2 bottles of icyhot? Yes. Will I do it again. Yes. Why? I don't know. I'll let you know when I figure that one out. 

June 2014

This is the month Matt and I started dating. It was a very exciting and interesting journey and I'd love to write a whole blog post sharing our story, but that will be another day! Also, my avocado plants started to sprout and grow leaves! I started off growing 9 plants, and I'm down to three survivors...Larry, Sunshine and Captain. 

July 2014

Went on a camping trip with my Bible Study Group. I also shot off some fireworks for 4th of July. Fun stuff. 

August 2014

Matt and I ran a 5k together. He does not like running. At all. But he suggested that we run a 5K together. And we did. And he was a trooper. And we both had a blast. 

September 2014

I switched rooms with my roommate in the house I live in, so I got to re-paint it! I painted 3 walls a fog grey color and the 4th wall was painting "cranberry splash" (a pinkish-coral color!) I love it! This month was also filled with about 3 million bridal showers for my friends. 

October 2014

WEDDINGS Weddings weddings. Thankfully I was only in two of them this month! And thankfully they were a few weeks apart. My roommate/co-worker Lauren got married the first weekend in October and then my friend from college, Courtney was married two weeks later. Both had beautiful dresses, colors, flowers, music, food and wonderful friends! It was probably the best month ever. Gosh I love weddings so much. 

November 2014

The entire month was filled with 99 trips to the mall to do Christmas shopping and about 14 mental breakdowns. 

December 2014

I became an aunt once again! Adlie Brielle was born a few days before Christmas! Lots of snuggling with her and LOTS of family time. Between Matt and I, we had 8 Christmas parties/gatherings to attend in the span of 6 days. We hit all of them. 

January 2015

Another year. And another list of resolutions I'm going to fail at. Here are a few: stop biting my nails, get a pet bigger than my fish, and actually use my gym membership. I have accomplished one of them so far...I'll let you guess which one. 

February 2015

So far we have gotten two new roommates (one of them being a cat). My niece Selah turns one very soon and my little sister is getting baptized this weekend! So much happy stuff is going on! 

I promise I will do much better at blogging....at least I'll try to. Maybe that should be one of my new years resolutions haha

Thanks for reading! Much love! -B

you know you love your roommates when....

As I look back at all the different roommates I have had, I am so thankful! 

Each of them has taught me so many lessons and to this day (many years later) I still value each of their friendships! When you become roommates with someone, you become way more than friends and way closer than sisters. What is usually known as 'awkward' or what is called 'going way too deep and personal' slowly becomes completely and totally typical household behavior between all roommates. 

1) You always get invited somewhere in pairs or as a group. Nobody ever sees you without at least one of your roommates tagging along.

2) You text them photos of your face just to bother them, when they are in fact sitting in the room across the hall.

3) You have a serious chat with your roommate about whether or not it is acceptable to fart aloud in front of each other. And when you decide that it is in fact acceptable, you decided to dedicate that day to be 'your anniversary'. 

4) You get into a really long deep conversation that you don't want to end or interrupt by having to go to the bathroom, so you just go to the bathroom with the door open and continue talking.   

5) Just because all of your roommates vehicles are parked in the driveway, does NOT mean that all of your roommates are at home. It has become necessary to do a physical head count before chaining the doors shut because it was a weekly occurrence that one roommate would be sitting on the front porch, locked out of the house at 4am. 

6) Roommates become the best gift-givers. They know exactly what you want because they already know everything you own and everything you complain you don't have. 

7) We all take turns packing each other lunch. Some lunches may or may not have a post-it note on it saying 'have a good day!' Because that's how we mother each other. 

8) You know when all four of the female roommates are dealing with their 'time of the month' because everyone spends an entire week ignoring each other in their own separate rooms. 

9) If you are one of the lucky few, the greatest gift in life is a roommate that has the same shoe size of you. For me right now....three out of four of us roommates have the exact same shoe size. As if I didn't have enough shoes, my shoe closet just tripled. Score. 

10) It's perfectly normal to start a load of laundry at 1:30am...with all of our crazy work schedules, it's literally the only time that some of us have to get stuff done around the house. 

11) Your roommate's significant others become like extended roommates. It's like having 9 roommates instead of 3.  

12) Your roommates become your go-to wing-woman. No matter what occasion. You need a buddy to go with you to a boring art show? Perfect, you got three roommates to choose from. You want to go to the church festival, but don't want to go alone? Perfect, grab a roommate.  

13) At the end of the day, all of the roommates end up in one bed. Cuddling. 

14) You will find a reason. Any reason. To make a cake. For example. Lauren-bought-her-wedding-dress-today cake. Or my personal favorite....I-survived-monday cake. These have all happened in my household.

15) Partially nudity is completely acceptable and normal. Yoga pants or no pants is our motto. 

Questionnaire

Totally stole this from another blogger, and she stole it from another blogger. 

I am currently obsessed with: My chair. I bought this cute little wooden chair at a thrift store for $6 and I have been modge-podging magazine clippings all over it. I work on it every spare minute I get. I literally canNOT wait to have it completely done and use it at the kitchen table or in my room.  

My biggest pet peeve is: Physical therapy. I have to do it for my ankle that I messed up, and it's not fun. I have to do a certain amount of stretches per set, and a certain amount of sets per day. It's awful. And annoying.   

I could eat an endless supply of: Hohos. I currently have 2 boxes in my pantry. Don't judge me, but my record was 6 boxes in 5 days. But that's because it was the finals week that my thesis was due; I couldn't sleep and didn't want to eat anything but hohos, so that's what I did. But that's another story for another day. 

I am currently reading: I have like 6 books started, but haven't finished any of them. Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein is a great one I've been working on for a few months now. Also, I Gave Dating a Chance is a very interesting book, a spiritual perspective on dating and how to glorify God through a relationship. I'm about halfway through that book.  

My bedtime recently has been: 12midnight. Which is REALLLLLLY good for me, usually it's like 1:30 or 2am (which is awful considering I have a full time job I go to every morning. 

The last movie I watched was: The Star Wars Movies! Last week I watched 3, 4, 5, and 6 then a few days later when i came home from work, they were having a Star Wars Marathon on TV...so of course i stayed up late and watched them! Then last night my roomies and I watched 3 of them during our snow day! You could say that i'm obsessed. They never get old.  

I am writing this while: My roommate's boyfriend and I just spent the last hour and a half scraping off all of our cars, and the driveway, and the sidewalk, and stairs, and our neighbors steps and driveway (they are very elderly), pouring 2 bags of salt down, and pouring buckets of warm water on the car windows because everyone needed to leave for work and such. Now that everyone left for work and such, it's just me and my roommate's boyfriend at home....we are making hot chocolate.   

The scripture that is really speaking to my heart is: Peter 5:7 "Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." I struggle with anxiety a lot, so this verse is constantly on my mind to get me through the day! 

On days when I don’t leave the house, I: I don't ever not leave the house. I get about 3 days off per month, and those days are filled with errands, and meeting up with old friends.    

If I could hug anybody today, it would be: My mother. Her hugs are by far the best in the whole world. No words could describe what I would give for a hug from my mother. 

Please feel free to copy and paste this in the comments section, I'd love to hear your answers!   

the roomies

Us four girls have been friends all during our four years of college. And a few months ago, I took the opportunity to live with them in a small house close to campus. They always say "never room with your best friends because it will ruin your friendship." Ha. No. Never. It's truly been a blast since day one.

Please allow me the pleasure of introducing you to each of my roommates.

Dana.
She is the heart, soul that holds our little group together. Dana was a fine art major; it's completely normal to come home to find her in the kitchen, with every single table and countertop covered in plaster figures and paint splattered all over her clothes and arms. Dana works with the children/youth at two different churches, teaching sunday school and putting on activities and programs for them. Dana seriously has the biggest heart I have ever had the pleasure of encountering; with the kind of job she has, she is always putting others first and offering words of encouragement. Not a day goes by without Dana saying to me and the other roommates "I love you so much!" or "I'm so proud of you!" And cuddling. Lots and lots of cuddling with this girl.  

(college graduation day in May)   

Molly. 

The most practical and logical person whom I've gotten along with the most in my life. Usually my spirited personality doesn't mesh well with those who are so practical; but Molly is an exception. Molly is a doer and a go-getter, much like me. So anything and everything active and productive we both like and often end up doing together. We are the two roommates who go to yoga class together, run 5Ks together, wash/dry the dishes together and going grocery shopping together. The other two roommates tend to eat things like frozen pizza or pudding cups, but Molly and I will spend a good hour in the kitchen cooking up a nice stir-fry. Except for her stupid nut allergy; it's all her fault now that I have to spend an extra .39 seconds to check labels. I'm praying that I don't actually kill her. But our roommate Dana has dibs on stabbing her with the epipen.
(with her on the Appalachian Trail this past summer)   

Lauren. 

Lauren is actually my boss at work....which means I should be careful what I say on here! But we were friends first, then roommates, before becoming coworkers, so that's what's most important! Spending 40 hours/week with her at work, then spending evenings AND weekends with her as well is a lot of time. I know what you're thinking....HOW HAS SHE NOT KILLED YOU YET, BETHANY?! haha I honestly don't know! Lauren is an incredibly patient person and we are all so thankful to have her in our house. The house could literally be crashing down, and everyone an emotional wreck, and Lauren would be all like laying on the couch just chillin and relaxed. Lauren is a lover of minions, gnomes, and cake...which is TOTALLY NORMAL in our house. Did I mention that Lauren has a dog? His name is Scooby. We love him. Except when he jumps on the table and eats my turkey and avocado sandwich. Not cool, Scoob. Oh! She has very recently mastered the art of hunting spider-crickets. Seriously, she's really good at it! Thanks to our creepy, dark, damp, cricket-infested, un-finished basement.  
Lauren = 9 points, Crickets = -9 points, Bethany = 1 point 

(we ran the color run 5K this summer)   

But on a completely serious note. I love these girls. There is always someone there to give you a hug, ask you how your day was, cuddle with you, cook/eat dinner with you, drive you somewhere when your car breaks down, and all the other fun stuff that they are obligated to do as my roommate. We have grown so close to one another. It's like we can read each other's minds and finish each other's sentences....oh wait....we do.

Peace out. 

Beth-a-boot

Bethaboot. My most recent nickname. Bethaboot. Not Beth or Bethy or Beth-a-roo....Beth-a-boot. Cool, right? No.

It's a really long stupid story of how I ended up in this boot. Basically I'm just really klutzy and should just stick to art.
It was a lovely Tuesday morning. I had been running almost every day, building up my endurance to 4 to 5 miles. I didn't have to work until 1pm, so I was trying to convince myself to go on a jog to get some exercise in before I worked all afternoon/evening. I laid on the couch and surfed through pinterest, looking at workouts and healthy food to try and find motivation to get my lazy butt off the couch and be productive. I remember texting my friend, complaining how I didn't want to go running again. Finally I put on my running shoes, spent 10 minutes stretching, whipped out my ipod, and stepped out the front door with the intentions of running the four mile loop in my area. Wellllllllll..... I had just started down my street, when I saw a large truck coming towards me, so I attempted to move over to the side a little bit so I wasn't so close to the road (makes sense so far, right?) Well in the process of taking one step over (while running) I managed to roll my ankle off the curb, summersault through a bush, and face-plant the sidewalk. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
I laid flat on the ground completely stunned. Praying that nobody saw my extremely epic wipeout. I hobbled all the way home (note: I had only made it about 20 feet down the street). I showered and iced my foot before driving to work and working on my feet from 1pm-10pm, which was totally awful. I got home that night and my ankle was the size of a cantaloupe. I could still move my ankle around, so I knew that it was NOT broken; so in my head I'm thinking "okay, it's JUST a sprained ankle, no biggie. I can still work and walk around just fine." Even though my roommates told me countless times to go see a doctor, in my head that was just silly, because I KNEW it was NOT broken, so why see a doctor, right? (that's where my stubbornness came out) Wellllll four and a half weeks later, my ankle is STILL swollen, and still a little bruised. I figured by this point, maybe something is wrong. I might as well get it check out just to make sure......

I entered my doctor appointment 99% sure that he would say "it's just a sprained ankle, you're fine, go home." Wrong. So wrong.
As the doctor was pressing on my ankle and wiggling my heel back and forth, his eyes got really big and he looked at me. "What did you do to yourself again?! You're ankle is not supposed to move like this!!" The ligaments that hold my tibia and fibula (lower leg bones) together, was torn apart, and a tendon that stretches from the top of my foot, around my ankle and up the back of my leg was badly torn....so bad that it was't really attached to my bone anymore. And the bruising I mentioned? My ankle actually bruised ALL the way through, from one side of my foot to the other!
The doctor said that I should have been in a cast and on crutches, then a boot, then a brace, then physical therapy. But since I was already 4 weeks through in the healing process, he just wanted to put me in a boot. I told him "No way. I got stuff to do. I work two jobs, I need to be able to walk around." (once again my independent 'i can do everything myself' kind of attitude coming out) the doctor responded with "You're not leaving my room without a boot." Sigh. Fine.
The most embarrassing part about this was going home that evening, and all of my roommates glaring at me with this "I-told-you-so-face".
It has been quite the experience. I have never had an injury before (unless you count stubbed toes and rug burns as 'injuries'). My coworkers were really nice about it; letting me take breaks more often and stuff. And my roommates were even better; offering to drive me places (because it was my right foot), and helping me out around the house. Now that the boot is off, and I'm in a brace I don't get near as much 'sympathy' haha ;) and the boot kinda looked 'cool' because everyone was like "wow you must have done something really hard core to end up in a boot!" and now I'm in a velcro brace and people look at me like "wow you're special." haha

Let's just say it's been quite an experience! Can't wait to start running again in another few weeks! I got a Hot Chocolate 5K Race to train for! 

By the way, so sorry for the lack of blogging. Turns out working 2 jobs, an average of 60+ hours/week can keep a girl pretty busy! :)

All my love, 

Bethaboot