You're My Greatest Treasure

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the day celebrating the freedom we have in this country. I'm thankful for all those who have boldly served this country so that it could be what it is today. I guess in the next few years, I'll come to have a greater appreciation, but for today I'm happy to be celebrating with my husband, who still belongs to me and not the Navy. ;)

So how are we celebrating today? Well, as I've previously mentioned this week, marriage is an adventure and I've tried and learned so many new things from it. Today is no exception. Today, we went gold panning with some friends. I'd watched Curtis do a little panning before, but nothing like we did today. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and spent 4 hours "testing" different areas, collecting sand and gravel and sifting, watering down, and playing with the pans of gravel until they were down to sand. Sounds so fun, right?

at least it's beautiful out there!

I have to admit, I was very skeptical at first. Thankfully the weather here has cooled down because of the monsoons going through, so it was a pleasant morning. I had been told to not have high expectations, but it didn't help when our friend pulled a decent sized piece out on his first try. But even though I barely had a few specks to show for the morning, I gained a new appreciation for my husband.  I like how even though this is such a relatively "boring" activity (almost like fishing but not as bad as golf) he still gets excited and gives it his all. While I'm very thankful that he's not going to quit his career to do this full time, it's fun to see him work at it and enjoy it. I love how he has so many different little interests that others our age might find odd. Most of all, I was reminded how precious our time together is, and that no matter what we're doing, I can always find a way to enjoy it because we are doing these things together.

Big strong manly men carrying 50+ lb buckets back up the hill :)

Before we got married, we were in a long distance relationship, and time together, whether on Skype or in person, was very valuable. Next year, we'll start our adventure with the Navy, which will mean even more time apart. Even though it may feel like we have all the time in the world to be together now does not mean I should take any part of this for granted. Whether it means keeping electronics turned off, missing out on time with others or by myself, or anything else, I should always take advantage of this precious time I get to spend with my husband. 

Once I finally remembered this, I was able to enjoy panning much more…not because of my few gold specks, but because I get to do it with my real treasure: my husband. :)

From May 2012. Back when Curtis (just my boyfriend at the time) was sporting a mustache and goatee. Thank God for the Navy. ;)

My Love Story, Part 4 - My Life Changing Moment

Need a refresher? Catch up here:

Part 1 - How it all Began
Part 2 - Before Meeting Him
Part 3 - Here Comes My Soulmate

Picking up after part 3:

Rehearsals for the Christmas play, "A Christmas Carol", began in September of 2003. We met once a week after church services on Sunday and would spend about 2 hours learning songs, choreography, and going over scenes. I had a blast with all my friends as we went through everything from memorizing our lines to getting our sparkly costumes. Practice was always one of the highlights of my week. 

Then there was one Sunday - October 12 - when we were eating lunch in a classroom together like we did every week before practice started when the main character - Ok, we'll start calling him "Curtis" now - walked into the room with his mom. He was wearing a red and white striped long sleeved shirt. His mom said to the director, "Curtis can't come to practice today, he has a sore throat." An undeniable feeling of disappointment came over me, and I knew why. I was really enjoying being around him. I liked that I had several lines that required us "talking to each other". At one part, I was supposed to grab his hand and pull him across the stage. We weren't really friends and had no conversations besides what was scripted, but I found him fascinating to be around. 

That was the only practice that he missed. After that, rehearsals continued and the play started developing more. The first Sunday in November, we started practicing the curtain call - where we run up, take our individual bows, then hold hands and have a big "group bow". I was in the second-to-last group with the other 3 angels. Curtis was last. I would always try to make sure I was standing in the middle of the angels so that when we split and went to each side, I would be able to hold hands with Curtis after his bow. Real sneaky, right?! ;)

After 10 weeks of practices, the day of the performance - Sunday, December 14 - finally arrived. This was back in the days before I got stage fright, so I was very excited and ready. That morning, we had to sing in all 3 services for church. While we were all lined up in the hallway waiting, a friend of mine came up to me and handed me a piece of paper. "I stole it from Curtis!" She said proudly. I knew he was nearby, so I took the paper and went over to him. 

"Here", I said shyly as I handed it back to him. His friend standing next to him started laughing and pointed. 

"You're blushing!" he exclaimed. 

"You're blushing." I replied as I hurried back to where I was - where I was safe from anyone thinking I liked that boy.

The play happened that night. The whole thing went great, and I had a blast. There was just one little "mistake" that I made: when the angels appeared to Curtis/"Kevin", I was supposed to march forward, "Sound of Music" style, introduce myself, and march back. While marching back, I stepped on Curtis' pillow and almost fell over backwards. In that moment, I glanced over at him, and he rolled his eyes at me. That moment changed my life.

He was watching me. He rolled his eyes at me. He knows I exist! He was supposed to be doing something else, but instead he noticed something I did! These thoughts went through my mind and filled me with excitement and wonder. 

Me, telling Curtis a story about his future. I was in love with my "futuristic" costume.

Curtain call - so glad my mom took a picture of this moment. Little did she know how hard I worked for that spot. ;)

After the performance, it was all over, and I was a bit sad about that. But anyone who's been in a play of any sort knows the feeling of being bummed once the show you've worked so hard for is finished. I saw Curtis around church briefly the following Sunday, but that was it for 2003. I had the cast party to look forward to, but for then all I had was a memory of the time that "Curtis rolled his eyes at me".

Read Part 5 Here: I Liked You Before I Knew You

Adventure is out There!

Day 2 in a month of reflecting on a year of marriage… Not saying it'll be every day, just as much as I feel like :)

If you read almost any post on my blog, you'll know that one of my favorite things is going on adventures with Curtis. It's a huge part of our life - we've gone on some sort of new adventure every single week since getting married! The funny thing is that just one year ago, I didn't think I liked traveling at all. I used to say that I could be perfectly content living in my hometown for my whole life. I disliked the harsh Iowa winters, but preferred to sit and wait it out rather than escaping to a warmer place. So what changed in just a year?

That's easy - I married Curtis, who always has a longing for adventure and dislikes being in one place all the time! But I never think of this as me changing who I am for him. Instead, I think I'm discovering new things about myself and things I enjoy doing because of him. This is just one reason why marriage is so great. I don't feel like I'm missing out on "discovering myself" because I married young - I'm still learning new things all the time, and more than I would be than if I were alone. I love getting to learn and grow alongside someone else.

Now, we both share this longing to travel to many different places. Thanks to the Navy, we'll get to do just that! Next year alone will have us in the Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast parts of the US, Lord willing. And who knows after that! I can't believe how much I've missed out on by not "liking" or "enjoying" travel before this year. I'm so thankful that Curtis planned such an adventurous honeymoon and continued to get us outside and going to different places. I think I was more indifferent to start off with, but the more places we visited, the more interested I became, until I looked forward to them as much as he did, and started planning things out myself! Today, I think I overwhelm him sometimes with all the places that I think we "need to go to NOW". :)

I bought this atlas just so that I could highlight the roads that we've taken on all our different trips. This represents our travels in Arizona from August through June.

Along with coming to love to travel, I've also developed interests in letterboxing, longer peak hikes, reading, maps, history, and more. Marriage is just fun like that, I have someone that I love, and we both have different hobbies and interests, and the longer we're together, the more we come to share those hobbies & interests. Today I'm thanking God for the time, ability, and working vehicle to be able to go so many places together. 

If there's anything I've learned about travel, it's that the more places we visit, the more interested we become, and the more places we want to travel to. I'm excited about having so many more adventures together in the years to come. :)

Psalm 95:3-7 comes to mind when I see God's handiwork in this picture. "For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care."

Wherever You Are...

I can't believe it's July already. There's no way we've already been married for almost a year. Then again, how has it only been one year? I feel like I've been married for many more than that! Anyway, I decided that for this month, I'm going to do more posts reflecting on our first year of marriage, things I've learned, memories, stories, or anything else that comes to mind - all revolving around Curtis & I. We've been so blessed this first year, and we have both grown in so many ways, and I want to remember these things for the rest of my life. I can't wait to look back on this on our 110th wedding anniversary. ;)

I'll start this off with what has been my "motto" before I got married, and what it's been since marriage. Back in high school, I read a biography about Jim Elliot. There were lots of things about him that stood out to me. Back then, the biggest takeaway for me was his advice on marriage and how to know if you've found "the one". In my own words, it was something like "Discover yourself, and find the path that God wants you to be on. Once you are following His plan for your life, He will bring someone else alongside you who has the same interests and goals." At that point, I already liked Curtis, and knew I wanted to end up with him… but I wasn't sure if we had the same goals and if we could really be a good match. God always knows best though - He knew that all it would take was a couple years of maturing and some time living 1600 miles apart to transform us into who He intended us to become, and in that, we both became better people for each other. Now we're at the really fun part - growing closer to each other and God, together!

Since getting married though, another quote from Jim Elliot has been in my mind constantly. It's pretty simple and well-known, but I still find myself going back and thinking about it. "Wherever you are, be all there." The hardest part for me during the first months of marriage was having to move out of my parent's house and hometown - where I had lived my whole life - and move to a totally new place. Curtis was really the only one I had. This turned out to be a great way for us to grow closer together and create our new family, but of course I missed my family (and still do!) Whenever I would start to wish I could be with someone back home, I would remind myself that no matter how I felt about living here, I was only going to be here so long, so I should try and enjoy every day. The more I focused on enjoying my new husband and new home, the happier I would be, and the more I grew to love Arizona.

Of course, being a Navy wife, this will probably be something I'll always have to remember. I expect to fall in love with many places, people, and experiences that we'll have. I have always been so bad at goodbyes, and I know they will never get easier - whether it's saying goodbye to family after visits, friends when we move, or Curtis when he is gone for several months. I know that God has every day of my life planned out, and everything has a purpose - all I can do is trust Him and enjoy whatever he has given me today while I am here. Instead of thinking and wishing for things to come, I need to be completely present in today and enjoy this tremendous blessing God has given me - my husband!

Thanks, Curtis, for letting me come enjoy your world down here, and thanks to all our friends for welcoming me and helping make this place such an exciting home!