Welcoming Changing Seasons, Family, and The Puppies We Wish We Could Have

This weekend's "Saturday Adventure" is more like a series of extended weekend adventures thanks to Curtis' super light schedule. So enjoy reading about our Thursday-Friday-Saturday adventures. :) 

Monsoon season is officially here, as we've had rain off and on during the week. With it came some humidity. (what?! Yes, it's true - Arizona doesn't always stick to the "dry heat" rule! So unfair.) While that may be an unfortunate part of this season, there's one thing that has made up for it: beautiful sunsets!

No, we don't always see sunsets like this - monsoon clouds make it so much better. I've enjoyed looking and taking pictures of these every night this week!

 

They called Thursday night's sunset the "Arizona flag sunset" because the lights really do look like the flag! (Compare above picture with below - how cool!)

Of course, we saw this sunset as we were walking to the puppy store. Today, I'll share pictures of all our furry babies ;)

Puggle (pug + beagle) on the left, Boston Terrier on the right. 

Dachshund! His name is Franz. (Yes we name them, what would you expect?)

As much as we love Franz, the Puggle was our favorite of the week! Curtis said he thinks it's so cute, he would name it Puggle rather than coming up with another name. It's hard to get pictures of little active puppies, but Puggle loved looking at my camera. :)

Aww, Puggle & Boston are best friends - we're obviously getting both. ;) 

Another top favorite pair of the night - the English bulldog and the Schnauzer. 

He was also interested in my camera. I used to think bulldogs weren't so cute, but looking at this little face, how could I say no?!

We loved the "tiger stripe" patterns on the bulldog as well! Such pretty colorations!

So, why don't we have a dog yet? Sadly, it really just comes down to us being "responsible adults." We are definitely dog people and very much want one, and when we started seriously considering getting one earlier this year, we decided to wait till fall at least so that we could take it outside more without the heat. (This was before we knew how much we liked the heat!) But the more I think about it, the more I realize how it might not fit into our lifestyle very much. While a dog would probably love hiking and going on walks with us all the time, we also do lots of traveling, and so we'd either have to have a dogsitter, or try to do dog-friendly things only. We already have some "extreme trips" planned for the near-future, and honestly I don't think we're ready for the commitment that comes with dog ownership. It breaks my heart to think that, but I think that acknowledging this is the right thing for now. Someday I will hopefully have a cuddly, lovable puppy to keep me company while Curtis is away. :)

Curtis' week was actually very light, and he was able to work from home several days. On Friday, we got up "early" to beat the heat and claim first finders on several new boxes in the area. Nothing was too strenuous, just a stroll through a park, and a delightful morning together.

Prickly pear cactus - they are beginning to grow their fruit! I snapped some pictures while Curtis retrieved a box because I want to remember all these little changes and "seasons" the desert goes through.

Here's the fruit as it begins to grow. It starts off green, and if you don't know what it is, you might think it's just a new growth to the prickly pear.

Above is a riper prickly pear fruit, but still not finished. When they're ready, they are a much deeper purple-red color. I've seen prickly pear jellies for sale but have personally never tried it, though I've heard that javelina really enjoy them!

Friday night's sunset - we got to introduce our friend Mitch to Culver's and then had a stamp carving party at our apartment.

And now, for today's Saturday Adventure! We drove up to Phoenix to help Curtis' sister, Lydia, and her husband, Jeff, move in to their first home. Well actually, Curtis was really the only one who was needed to move heavy things, and that didn't take long at all so we were able to enjoy the day catching up and playing games. We're excited they are finally here, as unfortunate as it may be to have to move to Arizona in the heat of the summer! They have a lovely new home, with high ceilings and big windows that bring in lots of natural light. It'll be fun to see how they make it their own. :)

After a fun afternoon, we left their place, and instead of heading straight home, we decided to grab some letterboxes around Gilbert. We had a nice walk around the downtown area before heading over to some parks.

A big random statue near some tennis courts. Yes, after a hot and sunny day in Phoenix, the clouds and winds were moving in and starting to cool things off. While Phoenix is only 5-10 degrees warmer than Tucson is on any given day, that 5-10 degrees makes a huge difference! 

Beautiful skies and singing our lungs out the whole way home. :)

And finally, tonight's lovely sunset! I love this place. We're finishing tonight with delicious cherry cheesecake brownies. 

Finding Our Church

Looking back over our first year of marriage, one of the biggest things that's helped us grow spiritually is the teachings at our church, Berean Bible Church. Today I'm sharing with you how and why we came to be attenders of this church.

Out of all the things to consider before getting married, the most important questions to ask is: do we share the same belief? For Curtis and I, this seemed simple. We are both Christians, and had attended the same church for 10 years. While this could be simplified to "do we share the same religion," I think it goes much deeper than that. You can say you're a Christian, but that in itself can have so many different meanings. There are many different denominations of churches, as well as versions and interpretations of the Bible. Then even deeper than that, how do you actively grow and live out what you believe in your daily life? I think that if the beliefs of a couple align, they will have a significantly better chance at making it together, because what you believe is the foundation for all your thoughts, world views, goals, interests, and more.

Growing up, Curtis and I had been tremendously blessed to be able to sit under the teachings of a mentor and good friend, Ken McElreath. Listening to one of his lessons is like drinking from a fire hydrant. Within the first 10 minutes of any lesson, I can learn so much, and already have a page of notes to study and consider. With Ken, it wasn't ever just a Bible lesson that we could sit through, and walk away from and be good for a week. Every Sunday, we were challenged to re-evaluate how we read our Bibles, what we believed, and how to live our daily lives. What we learned from him has changed the way we think and how we studied the Bible. I personally had attended his Sunday school class on-and-off since 3rd grade with the rest of my family, so I would say that his teaching has affected my spiritual walk almost as long as I've been a believer.

Ken McElreath, speaking at our wedding reception

Out of all of the prayers I said before and while in the process of moving to Tucson, the most important one was that God would bring us to the right church. Curtis and I knew we loved Ken's teaching, and decided that the teaching was the most important part about our decision. We wanted a pastor who would go deep into the Word, giving a good expository message, and would study the Bible verse-by-verse, using the rest of the Bible to determine what it says. If we could find a church where we agreed with its core beliefs and studied the Bible in this way, we could be content. The question was, did such a church exist, and would we be able to find it in this big city?

God is good, and answered our prayers quickly. In our second week of our church search, we came across one on the internet. "Berean Bible Church." This looked like a good sign, since the Bereans are mentioned in Acts 17:11, where it says that "they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." We found some messages online, liked what we heard and decided it was worth a visit.

Our first Sunday morning at Berean Bible Church was one of the most encouraging days. We entered the small church and were warmly greeted by many, as it is easy for new people to stand out in a smaller church. But the fact that we were new wasn't the only way we stood out… we noticed we were also possibly the youngest in the building. (Upon further investigation, we found this to be true!) We sat close to the back, and a woman came up to introduce herself - she was the Pastor's wife. The service then started with worship, and we were in for such a pleasant surprise to find that the worship team consisted of a piano (played by the pastor's wife) and a singer, and almost every song was straight from the hymnal. It was so simple and refreshing! I don't remember all the different elements, but there was worship, offering, announcements, more worship, and then the message. Oh, what a wonderful message! At this time, the church was going through the book of Ephesians. We weren't sure how long the sermon would go since this was a church service and normal services last an hour with a half-hour sermon. But after a deep, insightful lesson, I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that the sermon was nearly an hour long! I'm pretty sure we were sold at this point. We were invited to a snacks and fellowship time after the service, where we talked to the Pastor and an Elder, along with their wives, and several other attenders. I already knew then that I wanted to return to this church, but getting to know the Pastor & his wife better came with another blessing - they reminded me so much of Ken and his wife Marsha back at home. We had found the "Southwest Trekkers Bible Study"!!It was like God was saying "see? Nothing's impossible with Me. Welcome home!"

We continued attending Berean Bible Church, and are still loving it. We're challenged each week with a new sermon, and it's helped us to get better with reading the Bible together. We love being in our church, surrounded by older and more mature believers and couples. We really enjoy helping with their technology and working on the soundboard during service some Sundays. I know that throughout our time with the Navy, there will many churches we'll attend, and I hope that we can find a church like this, or like Ken's Bible study, everywhere we live.

To anyone who may be in a situation like we were, our advice is first off to pray that God would make it clear where you should be. Make a list of the most important things you're looking for. Focus on the most important thing, and you will find other things fall into place. For us, we thought teaching was most important, and though we preferred simpler worship times, we were willing to go with anything if the teaching was what we were looking for. When it's the right place, I believe God will make it work out. Make sure your core beliefs align with the pastor's, and the church's mission statement. Remember that church isn't supposed to make you feel comfortable - while fellowship and happy messages feel good, in order to grow spiritually, you need to be challenged and encouraged to pursue your own personal walk with God. Once you have found the church that is where you know God is leading you, commit to going as often as possible and get involved. Be assertive in finding ways that you can serve the church and give back. 

To anyone interested in listening to Ken McElreath's teachings, visit http://www.trekkersbiblestudy.org. If you're interested in Berean Bible Church, visit http://www.bereanbibletucson.org.

These pictures are all from 4 years ago today, coming home from our 3rd Mexico Missions trip together. We we just silly pair with an equally crazy group of friends. :)

My Love Story, Part 5: I Liked You Before I Knew You

December 31, 2003 was a great day. My family spontaneously planned a trip to Indiana to visit my best friend, Caroline. We drove out that day and got to reconnect with her and her family after 14 months apart. Over the next 4 days, we would have many new inside jokes, play dozens of games of Scattergories, watch "Finding Nemo" 7 times, eat delicious corn casserole, homemade bread and desserts after every meal, visit the sand dunes by Lake Michigan and the playground inside their enormous church, and just love every minute we spent together. But like they always say, "the truth comes out at sleepovers!" And that was exactly what happened that first night.

I don't have pictures of this particular trip on my computer, but here is my best friend Caroline & I, playing dress up many years before - when Caroline still lived in Iowa with me!

One of the funny things we used to do whenever we were together. The other funny thing would be picking each other's toe lint.

I was telling Caroline all about the play I was just in, and I mentioned the part about how "I messed up and the main character rolled his eyes at me". She immediately asked, "do you like him?"
"No," I responded.
"Okay, I'll tell you who I like, if you tell me who you like!"
"Okay," I said, and without hesitation, I told her. "I do like him!"
"I KNEW IT!" She said. "Why else would him rolling his eyes be important?" I took that as a mental note to not mention this to anyone else, in case they were as quick and smart as Caroline is. And that was the day when I first told someone that I "liked" Curtis.

Caroline and I, reunited in July 2013 after 6 years apart at my wedding!

We returned home on Saturday, January 3. The next day we went to church. I went to my Sunday school class (our class was so big, it was split into 2 groups, so I wasn't in the same class as him.) and then to "big church" with my parents. After service, around 12: 20 pm, I was standing in the hallway near the nursery, waiting for my mom to pick up my baby sister. I looked across the hall and saw him. He was wearing a hazel long sleeved shirt. He didn't see me - he was staring the other way, and the look on his face said that he was bored out of his mind. But in that moment I knew…I really liked that boy. He was interesting, mysterious, and talented. I wanted to know him, like really know him. I wanted to know what he was thinking. I wanted to be good friends with him, but I was too shy. I didn't think I could ever work up the courage to go and say something to him.

That night, January 4, 2004, I wrote in my journal for the first time, "Special secret: I secretly admire Curtis J." And I decided that this is what it had to be: I would be his 'secret admirer', and I would tell no one. I was scared that my parents would be mad at me, so I didn't think I could tell them, and I certainly couldn't tell any other friends. Caroline knew, but I trusted her with my life, and knew she'd never tell anyone.

And so this was my secret…and it stayed that way for the next 2 ½ years.

New Year's Day - January 1, 2013 at 12:05 am - 9 years to the day after admitting I liked this guy, we got engaged!

Need a refresher? Catch up here:

• Part 1 - How it all Began
• Part 2 - Before Meeting Him
• Part 3 - Here Comes My Soulmate
• Part 4 - My Life Changing Moment

A Letterboxing Post: Stamp Carving 101

As I mentioned yesterday, this past week I've been busy carving stamps. When I first started letterboxing a year ago, Curtis told me to think about stamps I'd like to carve and plant. The very first thing that came to mind was an "Emperor's New Groove" series. (If you have never seen that movie, please stop reading and go watch it. It's on Netflix. It's not necessary to see it to understand this post, but it'll make your life much better.) After a year of thinking through how each stamp would look, how many stamps to carve, where to plant, and how to write the clues, I finally got to work on the first step - designing the stamps, and finally carving them!

Now I'd imagine that if you're reading this, you're either a letterboxer who knows how to carve already, or a "noxer" (non-letterboxer) who doesn't really care. But I still wanted to share how I went through the process of carving one stamp, and give any letterboxers a sneak peek at one stamp in the series of 9. :)

Every stamp starts as a doodle. I'll draw several images and decide which I like the best.  Size is always a factor, I'm all about conserving the carving material. In this series, I had a wide range of sizes - this is one of the bigger ones. After I've chosen which image to carve, I use a pencil to thicken and darken the lines. Thicker lines make it ultimately easier to carve. 

Next, I prepare my carving material - sometimes that means a new piece, other times I can use a scrap from an older piece. (We prefer the pink stuff over other materials for carving, it can be found at Michael's - make sure you have a 40% off coupon!) I find a piece big enough for my carve, then take the paper with the drawing and press it on the rubber, rubbing it so that the led leaves a mark. This is why you want to make the lines so thick with led on the drawing! It rarely turns out perfect for me, like in the above picture, but it's relatively easy to fill in the parts where it didn't work out.

After darkening the lines again, I'm ready to start carving! This is my handy-dandy carving tool. I always begin with the smallest bit (#1). I begin by outlining the entire stamp, carving around all the lines. Ultimately, I want the lines to be all that's left for the stamp. As you can see, that means I'll have lots of thin lines to work around, as well as small spaces around the lettering. Letters are hard, if you're just starting out I'd advise you to avoid those for now. Wait until you know your carving tool really well. :)

This stamp in particular literally took 5 hours to carve. It can be a long and tedious process, which takes a toll on your neck & shoulders. Make sure you have a husband as great as mine to massage them for you. ;)

Here's a closer look at what it looks like after a lot has been carved out. After I outline the entire thing, I use bit #2 to carve out bigger sections. It goes much faster and deeper than #1. I do not use it on more detailed areas though.

After I think I've carved out all that needs to go, I ink it up and stamp it! Sometimes I make stamps intended to have lots of color which requires using markers instead of ink pads, but this entire series is just outlines that can be colored in if one wants to. 

What do you think - it looks done, right? Wrong!

See those tiny black specks between the lettering? That will show up every time it is inked. I always spend extra time cleaning it up to avoid blemishes like this.

Readable? Yes, but why not go the extra mile and clean it up?

Tada! A year of planning, a dozen doodles, and 5 hours of carving later, I have my stamp! 

I'm extremely happy with how all 9 stamps came out. Now it's time to get them ready to plant, but I feel like I'm going to have a hard time parting with these guys. Once you plant a letterbox, it's out in the wild, available to anyone who has the clues or randomly comes across it. It could be destroyed or lost. Of course, where I choose to hide it plays a huge roll in how long it will last, but you never know what goes on in the wild. All I know is, wherever I hide them will always hold a piece of my heart. ;)

Arizona letterboxers: be looking for this series, coming soon to a trail near-or not so near- to you! You won't be disappointed! 

Here are a sampling of other stamps Curtis & I have done:

Father Tucson - an event box that Curtis carved. Pretty impressing, right?!

I carved this heart stamp just for card making purposes.

A personal traveler that I carved. 

As you can see, we've had a lot of practice, and a lot of fun with this. I hope people enjoy getting our stamps as much as we love making them!