Wedding Favorites

We got our wedding pictures today in the mail.

It is SO much fun looking at them and remembering that absolutely wonderful day. 

I want to write more about it later, but for now I'm going to just show you some of my favorite pictures from the day. 

My amazingly talented long-time bestie, Monica Burkett took pictures for us. I am so honored that her and Bret came to Hawaii for our wedding. Not only honored, but extremely happy because these pictures rock. If you need a photographer and are in the Dallas, Fort Worth area give Monica a holla, she'll hook you up with some sweet shots. 

All of these photos are from Monica Burkett photography. :)

this was me worried my dress didn't fit...it did. 

sweet note from Andrew

the wedding party. poor allie couldn't handle the sun.

Our family

Our amazing friends/family.

Most definitely my favorite day ever. 

It was beautiful, relaxing, dreamy, filled with love, and everything I have ever hoped for. 

change is...

I knew moving to a different state wouldn't be easy. Weeks before graduation I started to feel the not-so-happy part about change. My thoughts were so conflicting. I couldn't wait to be with Andrew always, I also couldn't stand the thought of leaving my 'family' in Texas. 
Marrying Andrew has been the best decision I have made ever. I am 100% totally over the moon happy  and even more in love with him than I have ever been. I can't wait for him to get home every day from work. I am content sitting on the couch watching him play playstation, pretty much as long as we are together, I'm happy. 
It's the times when he is at work, or baseball practice, or a football coaching meeting (like today), that I realize this isn't exactly how I planned it to be. And it's kind of driving me crazy. 
I for sure thought by now I would have a job. 
But I haven't even had one interview. 
I did get my first rejection letter, which strangely enough, was kind of encouraging. Before, I hadn't heard ANYTHING back from any of the jobs I applied for. My heart skipped a beat when I read "application status" in my email inbox. 
I also thought making friends would be SUPER easy. 
Not so much. 
Don't get me wrong, I'm making connections with really fun, cool people; but it's not yet to the stage where I can just call them up and ask them to meet me for coffee, or go to target together. It's just hard. 
I thought our house was going to be perfect. 
Yet, our front door wont close and our AC broke after being fixed for 2 days. Frustration. 


I know that there is a reason for these hard times, and I'm trying my darndest to keep my head up and remember that God has a plan that is far better than my own. 
I'm thankful for his provisions. That Andrew has a wonderful job and great friends who have welcomed me so warmly. I'm thankful for a husband that is so stinking sweet and loving.


So, change is conflicting. Wonderful and challenging at the same time. 


Thanks for listening.

Allye

Rain rain, go away

It wont stop raining here. I really hate to complain about such things when my dear sweet Texas folk are going through one of the worst droughts since 1895. If I could send the multitudes of water, I would. 

We discovered when we moved into our 100 year old house that our metal kitchen sink would sometimes shock us. At first we weren't very concerned (I'm not sure why, because there is nothing normal about getting shocked while washing the dishes), but the shocks became stronger and more frequent so we told our landlord. We got an electrician to come out, she said she wasn't qualified to fix such a big problem but that we should stay away from the outlets in the kitchen (yikes!). A couple days later while Andrew was at work I started smelling something burning. I frantically searched the kitchen thinking that it was something in there but couldn't find anything. My nose led me to the front AC window unit outlet. We flipped the breaker on that unit and haven't had AC in the living room, kitchen, or office since. That was about 2 weeks ago. Because it's raining so much here we have not been able to get electricians out to our house to fix the problem, which is completely understandable but doesn't make the situation any less aggravating. We're hoping to get it repaired this week...if the weather cooperates. 

VBS was last week. It drained every ounce of energy out of both of us. 6 of the kids from Andrew's baseball team came, and it was exhausting to watch after them the whole week. While there were moments of joy seeing them soak up the word of God through song and dance, there were quite a few more moments of complete frustration. Andrew and I have prayed many times that the Lord would teach us how to love these boys in a way that doesn't allow them to take advantage of us, or the situations we are putting them in. Disciplining is so difficult with them because they have never received it. On thursday night they had their performance, and besides the fight I had to break up 10 minutes before, it made my heart so happy to see them up there singing (eh, screaming) scripture and truth about how Jesus loves them. 

Lets see...what else is happening? We sold over 100 records this weekend at the record raid, which made for a happy husband and a happy wife. I'm still looking for a job without much luck, and I still desperately want a puppy. Nothing new, really. :) Oh! Allie is visiting us in 7 days and I CANNOT WAIT. It will be so wonderful to have her here. Hopefully we'll have AC by then.

I promise that I will give a house tour soon. With all the rain we haven't been able to paint/decorate some of the things I wanted to do before I showed all of you. It's coming though...swear! 

Allye

Life in New Orleans

Welcome to the new blog! Andrew thinks it's corny and ridiculous and I'm okay with that. Probably because I'm corny and ridiculous. 
Anyway, I'm happy with it and I'm glad you're here reading it! 


So, we've been in New Orleans for almost 2 weeks now and we're having a great time. 
New Orleans is such a fun place to live! We're loving our house (a tour is coming, as soon as I get the back of the house decorated!). We decorated the living room, kitchen, and office/sewing room/music room, first because we had home group the sunday after we moved it. Since then, my decorative motivation has been a bit on the low side...I'll get to it eventually though, as soon as I run out of things to bake. Our neighborhood is fun, we have met our close neighbors and are excited to start building relationships here. We're in walking distance from the french quarter. We've only walked down there once, and it was miserably hot, so unless we have visitors I'm thinking we might save our walking for the Fall. 


A big part of our lives right now are these kids:

They love playing with the iphones

Nell's (probably the sweetest kid on the team) mean mug

blowing bubbles gone bad

Part of Andrew's job is with a nonprofit that does community outreach. These crazies are the main part of the outreach at the moment. Andrew has been coaching the baseball team this season, those pictures were taken at their last game (which they ALMOST won...13-5!). They are trying, but deep down, we love them. They make us laugh, and after hanging out with them we ALWAYS come home with a quote or two that will keep us laughing until we see them next. It's been an adventure getting to know them, their stories, and being there to cheer them on. 

I'm hunting for a job harder than ever before! I have officially applied to every hospital (that I know of) in New Orleans and surrounding areas. I'm trying my best to not get discouraged and enjoy this time of relaxation that the Lord has given me. I'm thankful that Andrew has a job and that we are okay. 

Other than job searching, I've been baking a lot, trying to cook good dinners, and learning how to drive in this confusing city!

I love being married to Andrew. It's so fun to live together and be together all the time. I'm very, very, very happy. 

I'll be back soon with more! 

xoxo

Allye