Summer 2012

Our summer has been surprisingly eventful, particularly toward the end.  In July, we went on a vacation to the Washington coast with Stephen's parents and alllllll his siblings, including Mary and Tim and their two little ones, and also Cari's boyfriend, Eric.  We just spent a week at a resort town in the process of development, walking on the beach, hanging out and playing games at the house, swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub.  We each took turns cooking dinner.  We had some very tasty steak-and-veggie kabobs by Cari and Eric, a yummy Mexican meal by Tim and Mary, and Stephen and I made spaghetti.  It was a very relaxing, laid-back vacation all together.


Shortly after the family vacation, Stephen shot his first paid wedding gig.  There is a lot invested in wedding days, so he was under a lot of stress leading up to the wedding day, and also some in the photo editing phase as well.  But he finished it, and the couple was very, very pleased with the photos, for which we are very thankful.


In August, one of my college friends got married, so I flew down to Idaho and stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousin and attended Mindy's wedding, which was butterfly garden themed--very pretty!  They put a lot of humorous personal touches to their ceremony and the reception was one big, fun party, complete with a photo booth and props. :)  I got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones and had a really good weekend all together.  I am really glad I got to go.

My car's A/C stopped working sometime earlier this year, and we finally took it to get checked out in August, and found out we had to get a new part and the whole thing had to be reassembled.  God graciously provided the money for us, and we fixed it toward the end of August. In the same month, I had to get a new car key, because the buttons on my remote-entry car key didn't work anymore!  And today I got into a rear-end car accident (I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended by a car), but I'm not hurt at all and the damage to my car is very minimal.  The accident was not my fault at all, so insurance will be taking care of everything.

We've had an Indian summer this September, with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s.  I think the weather is trying to make up for the very cold and dark beginning of summer we had!  For now I am totally okay with sunshiny weather....I know those cold dark days are coming again!


Our church got a new music pastor, an answer to prayer after 3 years of searching for the right person.  Our church is now able to do so much more music-wise than we were before, because our temporary worship leader was doing so much other work in his position as Communications Director.  Now at our women's Bible study, Mark (the new worship pastor) comes and leads us in worship with a guitar, and we don't have to sing off a CD!  I am especially thankful for that.

Another answer to prayer is that Stephen got a nice raise this year, and we are so grateful for God's provision there!  Now it is actually a possibility for us to move into a bigger apartment, although we won't be taking advantage of that just yet.  For now it does ease up our budget some, and we'll hopefully be able to start putting more money toward debt repayment.

Overall, I think this year has been an incredible year of growth for us and our marriage.  I've grown in my faith in leaps and bounds, and as I've spiritually matured, I'm maturing in other ways.  Praise God for His faithfulness!  I sense good changes coming up for us.  I'm hoping to find my niche in the church we attend, although I'm not sure what that is yet.  And Stephen will be leading our regular small group Bible study again.  This year we will probably be going through 1 Corinthians to go along with our pastor's sermon series. You can pray for us through that.  We want to help our fellow brothers and sisters deepen their faith, as many of them are new Christians or just aren't sure how to grow deeper.  So you can be praying especially for Stephen as he bears the responsibility of teacher, and for me as I try to figure out where I fit into the mix.

Those are the biggest pieces of news.  Thank you for your prayers and your support!  You don't know how much it helps. :)

Hair Story

Upon deciding I'd rather not battle rush hour traffic for a 20-minute trip to my mom's, I drove the two or three blocks down to Supercuts from our apartment and went in to get my hair relayered.

I should mention that I don't like getting my hair cut.  I like the results, but I don't like the cutting part.  I have a really sensitive head and all the tugging and combing makes every outing a rather stressful 30 minutes.

The other part I don't like about getting my haircut is deciding what I want them to do.  I'm averse to big changes, but at the same time I don't like the same ol' same ol' all the time.  Today I got a picture off the Internet of long layers, the way I thought I'd like them done.  It happened to be a picture of Ashley Olsen--I hoped the person cutting my hair didn't recongize her and think I worshipped her like some 12-year-olds worship Miley Cyrus.  

Ashley's style was choppier-looking than my current very blah layers, and I liked the freedom with which the layers stood away from her face.  I figured that it was styled, but I thought I could achieve a good replica of the look without a styling.

No such luck there.  I have thick hair and lots of it, and the sheer weight of my hair made my layers look heavy, not lighthearted and fancy-free like Ashley's.  :P  One of these days I'll get around to styling my hair...Maybe.

I still liked the choppiness and was overall satisfied with the job the girl had done, and went up to the counter even contemplating tipping her.  She was such good company.  As Miae asked me if I had a frequent card, I opened my purse to bring out my wallet and....it wasn't there.

I knew instantly what had happened, but seriously hoped I had just left it in my car.  I hurriedly explained that that must've been where it was and darted out to the car to check.

Nope.  No wallet.  I was driving without a license and I had no way to pay her for the haircut I had just received.

I did have my checkbook!  I presented it to her hopefully, but she told me, "Oh, no checks."  She was starting to look worried.

So I explained, with lots of apologetic looks, that I lived just two minutes away and could run home and get it, bring it back and pay her.  Naturally, that made her nervous, but there was really no other choice.  I wondered how she would make sure I came back.  Was there anything I could give her, any possession, that she would consider valuable enough to bring me back for it?  Maybe my purse?  That made me nervous, but at least all my money and ID were in my wallet at home.

"What is your phone number?" she asked me, and I had to laugh to myself--such a simple request!  My phone number.  Of course she could have it.  "And my name is Stephanie," I told her.

That out of the way, I ran to my car and drove the three blocks to the apartment.  Every speed bump I had to go over on the long drive through our apartment complex seemed so superfluous.  I found my wallet right on the couch where I'd left it, after pulling it out to check if I had that frequenter card and forgetting to put it back.

Upon re-entrance to the salon, I was greeted with a joyful, "Stephanie!" from Miae, and now that the drama part was over, I laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation and immediately decided I liked Miae a lot.  Turnover at beauty salons has got to be at least as bad as Domino's, but I sure hope I get to see her again. :)

In all the flurry I forgot to tip her...Maybe next time.