Forever and ever, Amen.

As I drove home from work this morning, this song came on

Forever and ever -Randy Travis

and as I sang along I reflected on how strong love is, in its many forms.

    Chris and I are pretty individualistic, especially me, we love spending time together

but we are far from inseparable, and yet we both make sacrifices to make the other one's day a little brighter.

It also makes you do things you normally wouldn't. Our first year of marriage was rockier than a Sylvester Stallone movie, love made us do things we normally wouldn't, but not for the better. When you allow someone into your life, and to know every part of who you are, some of the ugly comes out. We'd fight over the STUPIDEST stuff, for instance, we got in a fight once over where to park the car, a shouting match over it. 

If it were anyone else, we wouldn't care where they parked. Love also makes you do the right thing, our marriage got so hard that we would purposefully not see each other, he'd stay out late (be it with friends, or his family) and come home after I'd gone to bed, and I'd wake up early, get dressed and leave right away. It was the only way we wouldn't fight...except we found it hard to stay completely away, because we'd text-fight a lot during that time. this continued for a whole month!

In late February, we reconvened and worked ourselves out. Its a conscious decision, day by day, to show love and not go down the slippery slope into unpleasant land. I say that this year should count our first year of our marriage, because the first year was a nightmare and wasn't who we were. This year has had some hiccups, like all relationships (even friendships!) have, but it pales in comparison to before. 

I never thought I'd be grateful for 'normal' fights that end with just being annoyed, not a shouting match to the death. 

Honestly though, when I first reflected on this song, I thought about how God loves us so much,

which is funny because I wrote about my marriage first, when I hadn't even compared it to my marriage until now. I thought about how God is our first love, in many cases. I know he was my first love, I was thinking about all the way God shows his love for us everyday. Obviously his greatest display of love was his great sacrifice of himself so we could live with him forever, but specifically today I was thinking of how much he loves each of us, personally.  He is such a romantic, he shows us things that he knows make us smile, like pretty flowers, blue skies, sparkly frost on the pavement. He's the epitome of strength and the ultimate warrior, he is bigger than the galaxy and more intelligent than a thousand super computers, yet somehow he is our best friend, our ever present help, our listening ear. To think that someone so powerful loves every fiber of your being, not just your personality, but EVERYTHING about you is still beyond me.
 I could hear him saying this morning after I shut my car off to go inside, "I love you, forever and ever, amen". What could be a better feeling than that? Totally what I needed to hear too. 

Okay! lets wrap this up!

Sorry, life has been busy lately!
you know how it goes...


so day 28: Flowers

Day 29: Black and white

 Day 30: Self portrait!

day 27: Far away

fixed my internet! for now..

Day 26: Close up!

This is from a shop in california that sells designer shoes and chocolates together! these were delicious. I've always been a touch jealous of people who can create such beautiful things. I always love to look at crafty things, but something gets lost in translation and my result is never as pretty.

Looks like I'm always catching up!

So how is everybody?


today is day 6 without internet at my house, but i finally carved out some time to go to fredmeyer and use their wifi, I'm still trying to fix the problem with clear, but I may just have to go in to a store and get them to fix it for me. Today I had a nice relaxing day at home with husband, and now its time to update my photos! I think I'm done!


okay so day 23:
Sunflare:

obviously, or its about to be obvious, I'm in love with trees. Call me creepy, but I like when they don't have leaves just as much, their wiry sticks decorating the white winter sky.. (I know, this sky is blue, I'm just saying...)

Day 24: Animal

This is sambo and his scooter, it was originally meant for decoration, but he pushes it all over the house and is just so fascinated by it.

Day 26:
Something Pink

these are technically fushias, but they are pink enough ;)

Catchup!

So, I've been without internet for a couple days.
note to the wise, never get clear. it SUCKS!
so sorry, these are old photos. I'm at my parents house (just to use their computer)  and didn't bring my camera or memory card.

Bokeh

Sorry, I had to photoshop in the bokeh. but hey, it kind of makes it into a newer picture eh?


faceless self portrait.

 and finally, hands!

I know I've posted a lot of wedding-ish newlywed photos, I think its because our first year of marriage was a living nightmare, that now that we've reconsiled I almost feel like a starting over of our relationship, like this should've been our first year, and last year was a nightmare we've woken up from.

Day 19: Something Orange

Bet you thought it was gonna be a pumpkin :)

Sorry for the terrible photo quality. I'm still not feeling great. yesterday was fantastic, and today , well sucks!
this little guy is actually a beanbag dart board, Chris won it at wunderland the night of his bachelor party!
(we had clean parties :)) anyway, he lived above Chris' dresser for a while but I found he's much happier behind our bedroom door... or was that me who is happier.... oh well! ;)

Today

Chris took me to the fish hatchery / Bonneville dam!
we've been there before, but it was kind of a get-out-of-the-house
excursion because I've been sick since Tuesday night, so i've been cooped up all week
trying to unplug my nose, and at the same time, keep it from running clean off my face.
I'm still sick, but lots better than Wednesday, that's for sure.

whenever I take pictures of me and chris he always has to make silly faces. I tried to get him to just smile. he tried to pretend he was when I took this one, by sticking his cheek out, he thought he could fool me. he was wrong ;)

Day 18: Shoes

 Okay, so these aren't my shoes, this is a gross spider. we seem to be having an epidemic of them lately; the other day I was fixing my hair and one crawled down from the ceiling and landed on my neck, I didn't see it until I turned my head and there was this nasty creature making its way down my neck! needless to say, its life was cut short that day by some lovely candles... I don't kill them when they are outside, this one in the picture, got to live on a technicality, he was outside on my door jam. as soon as they cross the threshold, they are mine for the killing.

These are my purple shoes. I think, actually, I may have one more pair of purple shoes in addition. apparently purple is my favorite color. I always thought it was turquoise but I seem to be drawn to all things purple these days.

Day 17: Technology

This is my laptop, cell phone, and mp3 headphones. I have to chuckle at all the wires i battle every day or so just to get my "luxuries" to work. haha.

Day 16: long Exposure.

I don't know if this really counts, all night time photos take a long time to take so i assumed that it would work. I know, I was being bad and using my phone to take pictures while driving, but if you look... my light was red. nobody was in danger :)

Sorry! I was very very sick

Plus yesterday, I didn't have internet. pretty much all I saw was the inside of my eyelids.
...
to make up for it, here is a tour of my apartment!
its teensy, but it'll be a good memory to tell grandkids someday..

This is our living room, pretty much everything in this room was free, the couch and chair were gifts from 

my parents for our wedding [well..handmedowns] the table and red clock we got from IKEA with giftcards, 

the hooks for our coats, the lamp and the tv and tv stand were things we had from christmas' past, as well as wedding gifts. and there's a quick panorama of that.

 This is our deck, we actually use this door waaaay more than our front door. we have neighbors who congregate in front of our door [her front door faces ours] and they take up that whole side walk.

 This is a look from the door we enter by.

 This is my festive fall decorations.. elaborate, I know :)

 here's a better shot of our living room

 The clock is from IKEA, the turtle was a gift from my mom, the square i stole..um..borrowed.. from my sister. and the photos are from a graduation party

 photos of us, along with our unity candle, wedding album, and some cute bear things from chris' grandparents.

 This is our bedroom

 I made these to go above our bed.

 my side of the bed has chris' shoes under it... I know, totally makes sense huh? haha

 well, I didn't think this was THAT blurry. whoops.

 Chris' uber exciting dresser.

and our over exposed bathroom!

30 day challenge!

Sorry, its "long exposure" today,
but I am feeling really sick today.
hopefully I'll be back at it tomorrow!

day 15: silhouette

           I started out with this one, and then took a more traditional one, outside, but the colors were weird, so I just went with this. I don't know if it counts, since you can see my real hand, but oh well! Today is kind of a gray day, with bursts of sun, and REALLY cold.
don't get me wrong, I love cool weather, but somehow it caught me off guard. I'm glad today is silhouette day, I wore makeup and everything today [I'm trying to be more feminine] and i found my favorite pictures of the day don't involve my face at all.

Day 14: Eyes

These are Alissa's eyes, Alissa is my sister.
my sister, mom, grandma, and grandpa all share this wide eyed look. somehow I ended up with Asian looking eyes. I think that's pretty interesting to have such diversity within a family.

Day 13: me with 13 things

There are 13 lights in this picture! I made it like 5 years ago i think...
it was the best i could come up with that had 13 things! it was either 10 people... 6 cars...30 toes... 13 is  A hard number.

Sunset: Day 12

This was from chris and my honeymoon, it was beautiful, we went on a 7 day mexican cruise.

Something Blue: Day 11

Something blue day!
This was taken the day before I left to go out of town
Chris took me up to corbett, YAY!

Sorry! I've been out of town

Alissa, Lauren and I stayed in this yurt for 3 days and two nights. it was tons of fun. Now we're back and I'm ready to blog again!

A childhood memory

Today is day 10 of the challenge, a childhood memory

My dad used to put one aftershave before work, and when we'd be headed off to elementary school, he'd cup our faces in his hands (still covered in after shave) and we'd go off to school smelling like our dad all day. i liked it.

Someone you love

Day 9!This picture was taken when Chris and I were just dating, this is Alissa's birthday. I love them both.

soo

I've been helping at a youth group in Milwaukee, and this wednesday I am speaking. so here it is:

So, where to begin?
I'm Krista, I'm 22 years old.
I grew up in portland, with  my Mom, Dad and Sister, and had a pretty normal life. I was raised in a christian home, and when I was pretty young, I decided that I was going to give God my life and my plans for my life. I was baptised at around 9 years old and continue to rededicate my life to him.

Growing up, I had a really rocky, sometimes pain-filled relationship with my Dad, and almost always felt like an outsider when it came to socializing. Even though I had friends, I still felt like i was really different. This was a hard thing for me, I couldn't really understand how effortless it was for people my age to make friends, to find things to talk about, and things like that.

In Middle School, my family and I moved to a different part of portland/gresham area. I was new to school, and pretty much an outcast. I was teased for stupid things like how I wore my hair, wearing clothes that weren't "cool" and stuff like that. It was at that time I started really investing my time in church. I made friends with another girl, who at the time was far different than I was, to be honest, we really didn't like each other at first, but my mom and this girl played foursquare every week at youth group and my mom thought we should be friends, and we were kinda forced  into it. Looking back, It was a gift from God, She became my best friend all through middle and highschool, she's still one of my closest friends.

I almost felt like I was living a double life, at School I was a loser, and outside of school, I had friends, the more time I spent at church, the more meaningful relationships I built. In Highschool, to avoid the same pain from happening again, I kept to myself. It was really hard to get to know me, I hardly talked at all during schooltimes.  In 10th grade I joined a program the church I grew up in called "A12" which stood for "after the 12" as in, the 12 diciples. In that program we grew spiritually, relationally and I really starting getting a hunger for all God has to offer. I'd always been close to God, I prayed all the time, even before I joined A12. My mom and dad taught me that talking to God should be like talking to your best friend, and that, to me, was the best way to really feel free and open to talk to God.


Towards the end of highschool, and certainly after, My life had transformed into something I actually enjoyed, though church programs, camps, and building those strong friendships, I became I more outgoing person, though sometimes shy, I have met and kept new friendships going. I learned to "let go, and let God". To have that comfort of just knowing that there is someone who loves you no matter what, and to REALLY understand what that means, not just hearing all the time that jesus loves you, but to actually internalize that, and make it part of your outlook on yourself, it really changes you. God doesn't care if you're a size 2, or a size 102, he's after your heart. psalm 139, verse 13 says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;    your works are wonderful,    I know that full well."


Throughout the rough times, I always have to remind myself that God loves me, and has a wonderful plan for my life. As I've grown in Christ, I've had so much hurt undone, My dad and I have a better relationship than we've ever had, I have wonderful friends, I even had the boldness to talk to a cute guy, who turned out later to be my husband. which I would have never had the courage to before.

We can't always control the circumstances in our lives,  in proverbs 16 verse 33 it says33 "The dice are thrown, but the LORD determines every outcome."but we can let go, and let God be God, Believe me, I am still learning this lesson daily!

A bad habit.

today is day 8 of the photo challenge.
A bad habit..
my worst one is procrastination/ ADD

I have the shortest attention span when it comes to reading [not for pleasure, but like textbooks] and doing
homework and even doing chores and cooking dinner. even if I enjoy it! its hard for me to focus on one thing sometimes.

Fruit!

Today is day 7 of the challenge.
FRUIT

This is my sister's hand, we were driving along, eating grapes, and she found this
little guy. fruit that is  Larger or much smaller than usual is so funny to me.
I love that God doesn't make everything [or everyone] the same. He's perfect, but
not a "perfectionist". My sister collected all the small grapes we found and kept them on a little plate in her fridge. it was pretty funny.

Something from a low angle

Today is day 6 of the thirty day challege:
something from a low angle.

This is by the sandy river delta, those thistles only come up to about your waist. I love the way they look against the white sky.

Something From a High Angle

Today is Day 5.
Something from a high angle,
meet sambo, he's my parents /my dog. He has more personality than any dog I know.

Something Green

Today is day 4 of the 30 day challenge.
Something Green:

This wasn't what I had in mind for Green day originally, but I like it!
It kind of works out perfectly, because Chris is headed off to a conference tomorrow, leaving me here without him.
This was our honeymoon! we were too broke to afford excursions on our cruise, so we spent port days just walking around. This was our first stop, Puerto Vallarta. It was wonderful. I'd love to cruise again someday sooon.

Clouds

Today is Day 3. 

I'm not sure if this really counts since the tree is in the foreground. but there are clouds if you look closely. This is my absolute favorite "me" spot. Its women's forum in Corbett. Its my favorite escape when I just need to be alone with jesus.