the night.

so let me just start out by saying that lacey and i loved eclipse. it was our favorite movie of the saga by far... and it was great to see a movie that really did the book justice. again, the movies can never compare to the books, but this one did a good job of telling the story. i found it amusing that they didn't bother with quil's imprinting... that would have made it easier for whoever's directing breaking dawn to explain stinking renesmee!!

let's see.... i loved that the vampires were scary this time around. the action sequences were intense... one thing i wasn't completely sure about happened near the end... but it was pretty identical to the book and that part of the book was strange so what else can you do.

the actors really owned it. taylor lautner was incredible as a tortured and angry jacob. bella wasn't sputtering and acting bratty like i really thought she was in twilight. she was selfless and transparent, just like she was in the books. and robert pattinson? incredible.

so lacey and i started the evening with a little trip to starbucks. i got a grande iced coffee with classic and cream and it made me CRAZY! haha

we got lost trying to find red robin. lacey's crazy gps said it was 97 miles away but we made it in the end. here is me going crazy while she's trying to figure out where to go in the movie theatre parking lot:

lacey bought me some dinner... then we went to walmart for snacks, which we mostly didn't even touch. then i had the brilliant idea that we make spectacles of ourselves in the poster section of walmart :) :) :)

these sisters are most definitely not team jacob. let me take this even one step further.

we do like him now but the first time we read through the books, we hated him!! last but not least, my favorites:

funny side story: hannah was visiting my starbucks the other day with her friend chris and she was trying to get my attention. she shouts "bella!" and i turn around. this is slightly disturbing!

i meant to take more pictures but forgot the camera for the rest of the way... but as you can see, we had a blast!! i'm so happy to have my lovely sister to share my ridiculous-ness with.

i can't wait to see it again!!!

shara and jesus.

in the world you will have tribulation.

but take heart;

i have overcome the world

jesus the christ

i have no doubt blogged or shared these words before. they are on my heart today. i'll share the beauty of shara someday when i miss her real bad. i cannot wait to see what God does through her in haiti. even though tim finds this verse depressing, i find it powerful and completing.

He is my Rock and my Fortress.

i think it came to mind today because the only way you can do what shara is doing is to know this.

eclipse tonight.

anybody see kristen stewart on letterman? gosh that guy's kind of a jerk :/

anyway.... i am just a few short hours away from seeing a movie based on my most favorite indulgent book. here is the plan.

pick lacey up at 5:30

head over to walmart

pick out our junk food for the movie

probably look at gossip magazines and laugh a lot

head to the north side to red robin

meet her co worker shannon who sounds like a blast and a half

eat some burgers

(might try one of the veggie variety... hmm, i'm debating)

head over to the village park regal

arrive at 8

see movie at 9

holy cow!!!!

after i post this i will be trying on outfits to wear

i'm not dressing up

i just want to be comfortable

and not a slob

did i mention this movie is free??

awesome.

tomorrow some julie time (woop!)

i'll be taking some pictures tonight

!!!

there will be something not eclipse at the end of this post

so i'm not sure what i'm going to write about once eclipse is released????? you have to understand: eclipse is my favorite book in the twilight saga. i've looked forward to this movie more than any of the others... more than breaking dawn, even, and i'm pretty sure we're all pretty curious to see how they'll pull that one off.

so first up, a positive review for eclipse from variety i read on eclipsemovie.org

second, some pictures from the premiere of eclipse. i'm obsessed with how incredible they looked. i don't believe i've seen three people that attractive all together... ever in my life ;D

i believe i found both of those pictures on eclipsemovie.org. i thought the back of kristen's dress was pretty unique. it's funny how the fact that these actors are playing these characters i love so much really opens my heart to them as people. i really didn't used to care for kristen stewart in particular but now i love her... simply because when i think of the beloved bella, i see her face! her dress i believe is elie saab haute couture.

so anyway, onto real life. vbs was a blast last week. i wish i would have taken some pictures... especially of julie and i wearing our headbands... oh, and the boys wearing the ones we made for them :) pictures are so much fun on a blog and i need to get better at it, but i was pretty tired the whole week. i loved spending the last few days with julie. we always bond when we get to see each other and i am going to miss not seeing her as often once we move to chicago. :( julie is just so easy to be around. she is grounded and much older than her years suggest. i hope that the rutans and the spanburgs will see each other during our weekend trips home!

the kids were also great at vbs. i helped lead worship with julie and the band... and helped the little girls (and a few little boys) make egyptian (er.... native american???) headbands to wear. the last vbs i helped out with i remember feeling like i couldn't have a lot of kids, which is something i've wanted ever since tim & i started dating. *sidenote: tim and i want to adopt and also have a few children the conventional way... so in order to do that, we have to plan on a large family* this vbs, i looked forward to one day having children of my own, which i think means i'm really almost ready. just one more year of working on my selfishness (haha) and then i think tim & i will try.

today i am enjoying my sabbath (sort of). i woke up early to some issues with work and definitely did not think that i would be able to go back to bed and catch up on sleep because of the stress. (i slept like 10 hours on saturday night and still wasn't caught up.) i'm really thankful i was able because i can say i'm officially caught up and ready for the week. (the work stuff i won't publish here but it was terrible... the only escape will be a move and maybe a stepping down once we get there.) we are having a spanburg cookout tonight before alicia leaves for tokyo. i open tomorrow and then tomorrow night is ECLIPSE.

great news on that front: my sister got me a pass into the eclipse premiere that best buy is having for some employees and select customers. it starts at NINE! which means we won't have to see it with the crazy midnight crowd. we had the same experience last year, which was magical, because there were a lot of adults in the theatre and we could actually hear the movie and not deal with all of the midnight shennanigans. we will be grabbing a bite to eat beforehand with lacey's co worker who loves twilight like we do and i cannot wait. i also won't be exhausted from trying to stay up until 3 o'clock in the morning!! i wake up at 4 a lot of mornings so it's just not a good idea for me to be driving at that hour.

one more thing: i am so thankful for the community that twilight has brought me. i get that some people might think the books are a silly idea. i respect someone's right to say they don't want anything to do with it. i was the same way myself until both tiffany AND lacey FINALLY convinced me to read them. i was a late bloomer. but i tell you, there's something so innocent and so pure about this story that i miss in most of the books i read and most of the movies i see. the fact that love binds these characters in such a way (and no, i'm not just talking about edward & bella) to me is poetic and perfect. i also feel like i inherited a community of people i never had before. most of the ladies who i work with love the book and we share our silliness and excitement and music with each other in a way that i would have otherwise probably never have been able to connect with them.

what i think i'm trying to say is yes, it's a book about vampires written by a mormon and is very low on the lexile scale. yes, it's fantasy and changes what we have known for years of vampires (that's the rejection i don't get the most... it's made up?? so who cares if someone makes them sparkle and not die of garlic???) but you know what?

this is really only directed to one person in particular

get out of my face.

it's brought a lot of fun positivity to my life and that's all i'll say about that!! :)

have a great day, guys!

oh.my.gosh.

some dresses

here's a link to all the dresses kristen stewart has worn while promoting eclipse.

i think she did a pretty great job

(or someone did a great job picking everything out for her)

i especially love the first dress on the list!

http://www.people.com/people/package/gallery/0,,20316279_20396091,00.html

they look so good!

ModCloth

i think i could spend hours here:

http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses

the next time i want a dress, i think i'll seriously take a chance and order something from this site!

the rutan wedding.

some friends of ours from old union got married a few weeks ago... tim was the officiant. he almost pronounced them husband and wife without the exchange of rings (oops!) but it was a very lovely wedding. they had it at the rathskeller downtown and it was hands down one of the classiest weddings i've ever been to! i'd put it at number two or three and i bet you can guess who gets the number one spot :P we got to sit at a table with tyler & rachel, matt & emily, and brad & megan. we'd never met megan before, but she was awesome and we laughed all night. matt & emily are recently engaged... tyler & rachel were recently married. definitely a celebratory night!

beautifully decorated... so simple & elegant.

centerpieces

cute card box!

takes a LOT for me to post this one as well!

she looked so beautiful!

this picture almost looks like it was taken in black & white, haha!

pretty cake

me & my love.

i love him in this picture because he looks so happy :)

must add a ridiculous story. i went to the bathroom and came out to hear the dj on the tail end of announcing the bar was open. i pouted at my husband and told him i wanted some wine. this is what i hear from him:

"i'm pretty sure it's common mary."

i'm like, "what the heck is common mary?"

tim: "you know, common mary: like free."

i turn to my chiropractor's wife who is also a part of my church family and say: "have you ever heard of common mary?"

laura: "no?"

me: "i asked tim about the wine and he said that it's common mary. i guess it's a new way to say free?"

laura: "I think he said..... complimentary"

afterwards we went out with tyler & rachel to eat wings, have some drinks, & watch the suns lose. we were also able to walk around mass ave at night, which was amazing with the weather that day!

chicago trip.

so i have a ton of different pictures in my camera i've been meaning to post... just haven't had the time... but this beautiful rainy monday morning my only plans are to watch new moon again so i thought i'd take the opportunity to post some. first up, just two pictures from chicago... nothin' special...

this is tim & i hanging out at lake michigan... it's so pretty! we were actually in deerfield (where trinity is) checking things out and we stopped to take a peek. it takes a lot of nerve for me to post this picture because it is terrible!!

i have an old piece of sidewalk chalk i found in bloomington a long time ago when we were dating. it stays in my jackie o coat at all times. it drives tim nuts. i used it to leave our mark at the train station in chicago :)

this is a very exciting time for us. we are sad, but also so excited to explore all that chicago has to offer (it had better offer a lot with that traffic!)

today...

i met my future brother in law's family

had lots of fun family time out in the sun

ate some fantastic grilled chicken

almost completed stephenie meyer's new novella,

a lovely surprise from lacey

ate a nachos bel grande for dinner.

simple and peaceful.

really good day :)

fight scene stuff!

...

hello victoria!

um, doesn't she look amazing? holy cow, she's perfect.

photo courtesy of eclipsemovie.org

2 weeks, people.

so i think i'm a sellout?

i should have a super cool all white background with neat pictures all over the place but i really like the ones that blogger gives me to choose from so today i went with that. i also like the fact that this layout will not cut off all my twilight youtube videos!

choosing a background is sooo overwhelming for me... i only allowed myself five minutes to play with it or else i knew i'd be at it for hours. that is actually why i stopped blogging a long time ago.

idiot. :)

whew!

so what's up?

life's been kinda crazy over here in my corner.

i took time monday to relax and fill up my gas tank. it was fabulous! tim had to drive some kids from church to camp and so i got the house to myself all morning... i took the tim to finally finish new moon. then i watched new moon for the *first* time since my *two* times seeing it in theatres. gosh, i soaked it up. sorry to you who read this and received a thousand psycho text messages from me. :) i decided to put my contacts in and shave my legs during the jacob parts. and for the edward parts, i clicked "rewind" and "replay" a lot. tim came home right at the end and we walked on my favorite part of the canal, ate at qdoba (3 cheese nachos... mmm, thanks for helping me make that discovery, tiffany), looked around in borders. i was a cranky pants all day and could not figure out why.

until later.....

i'm pretty sure i was irritable because i wanted to go home and start on my favorite from the twilight saga, eclipse. i'm now on chapter nine and moving at a much quicker pace so i have no doubt that i will finish it right as the movie makes its debut! watching it fresh off the book is really an incredible experience. i was far less critical and just enjoyed the picture chris weitz painted for us fans. i was excited to see the movie, too, because edward's return was fresh on my mind. what is it about these books that makes me so crazy??? why do we love a crazy, obsessive, possessive, demented, suicidal vampire so??? stephenie meyer, what the heck did you do to me??? haha, i really do love it all. in fact, i feel a little over indulgent when i read these books. my healthy habits have gone out the window the past few days... i really think it's much like "happy weight" that people gain when they're in a really happy relationship and they just don't care what they eat or do. they're in love. yes, that is pathetic, but that is how i feel. so here is a picture from people.com that i like.

and here is an old picture of nash and i that my husband took (pretty sure i had no idea he was taking this picture because i was so utterly engrossed....) doing what we do best together: reading twilight again and again :)

p.s. my socks

are hot.

i promise.

one day soon i will post something other than eclipse photos & pictures. that's just all i really have time for at the moment. been crazy busy but also okay because it's making me learn how valuable and important misty time is. i have to learn to say no and take the time i so desperately need to refuel. monday's the day. i'm not doin' a thing.

hannah, the same to you my dear :)

um....

courtesy of eclipsemovie.org

absolutely beautiful.

tonight's reading...

exodus 19:5-6

"Now, therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

God doesn't just simply want to save Israel.

He wants them to represent Him to the world

ie: "Kingdom of Priests"

"Together as believers, we do the function of priests. Priests go between God and other people, and so a nation of priests function as mediators between God and the rest of the world.... We are all priests, and because of this we have a responsibility before God to represent Him to the world."

matthew 20:1-16

(parable of the vineyard workers)

"The Kingdom of God does not function on merit and payment, but on grace.... when they see the grace lavished on others, they begin to expect more. So Jesus' basic point is that the kingdom functions on grace, and not merit payment. You are saved by grace, not by your own efforts."

ranDOM.

today was just a good day...

i was able to work through some stuff.

my issues aren't completely resolved,

but the Spirit is helping me deal with the stress.

tim and i went for two walks

i've been cookin' dinner

i've been enjoying the dishes

i did yoga for the 3rd day in a row

(!!!)

our house is "showing ready" for the weekend

which means i don't have to do any cleaning

tomorrow i will go to the dairy bar with my love

and we will walk

and i will read some books

drink some tea

and relax...

i think last night was the best for relaxing.

check this out:

a.c. off

windows open

fans a blowin'

night time noises

listening to the children play outside

drinking bed time tea

eating a square of dark chocolate

reading eclipse

(!!!)

it was fabulous

it's amazing what brings me joy

when i'm not living for myself.

i'd love to be like that all the time.

one new discovery i must share with you:

source

this stuff is the bomb.

i've been on a real cereal kick lately.

i won't...

but i could....

eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

also, beauty is fleeting.

oh that we all could have recognized that in high school!

i got chills... they're multiplyin'

okay i promise this is my last eclipse post for awhile...

double click to see it better...

and yes i follow a twilight blog and it is...

eclipsemovie.org

bye, now!

why do i love them so?

this just may bore you to pieces but it gets me all kinds of excited!

:)

♥

photo courtesy of eclipsemovie.org

iPods n tea.

tim's birthday was monday and so we and his family all decided to take a trip to the keystone mall to check out the apple store. we stopped by with the intention of possibly picking out a new iPhone cover that would be a birthday gift from his mom, were tempted, and decided that day to go ahead and pick out his new laptop (for school in the fall). apple currently has a deal where you get a free iPod touch with the purchase of a macbook.

i have an iPod that tim saved up for a couple of years for my birthday. the free iPod touch that we got for free has more storage on it (we may have opted for that storage, i'm not sure...) so since i really didn't need one, i was okay with giving tim the one with larger storage. he needs more space for sermons and such.... and now i have an iPod touch!

one of the neat free apps you can get is Lose It, which helps you track foods that you eat, exercise, etc. i'm definitely not looking to lose weight but i want to be more aware of what i am putting into my body. i'd like to see how much protein, sugar, and fat i get in a day.

this morning i added my coffee into the program. granted, i don't have it every day... most mornings if i even drink it, it's just about half a cup. i definitely have a full cup three times a week and each time i am drinking it, here's what i'm consuming:

210 calories

6g fat

42g sugar!!!!!!!

that one about killed me.

42 grams of sugar???? what is WRONG with me??? i can drink coffee black so i'm confused by the fact that i drink it with this much sugar. i am very disappointed with my coffee-loving self.

so my goal is to get better about that. it was definitely a wake up call to think about that sort of stuff.

one great thing about keystone mall is teavanna.

while tim was looking for his new mac and his dad chris was sitting in comfy chair somewhere in the mall, tim's mom and i decided to stop by there on the way to the restroom.

my mom in law and i tried two samples:

white ayurvedic chai

"a chai that stands apart, this energizing tea contains spicy bursts of cinnamon, cloves, black & red pepper, tempered with sweet coconut & delicate lemongrass. these complex flavors enhance the ayurvedic proprties of this rare white tea."

and peachberry jasmine sutra

"sipping this fragrant fruit-filled blend delivers many smiles from the tantalizing comination of strawberries & peaches intermingling with the sweet perfume of jasmine flowers"

both teas we tried lightly sweetened. i believe they sweeten their teas with this stuff:

it's german rock sugar. it's natural and "adds a touch of sweetness without changing the taste of the tea." a pound is about $7 so maybe i can find it at whole foods or good earth instead. i definitely want to try it, though, because i normally do not enjoy my tea sweetened. it like sugar (as you can tell...) but to me, it does something strange to tea.

when i got home, my mom in law let me try a strawberry misaki tea ball.

"a vibrant tiger lily blossom is the showpiece of this hand-tied artisan tea blooming with a crown of pure jasmine flowers. expertly scented with the richness of ripe strawberries- a true masterpiece."

it is definitely a beautiful tea.

tim and i are working our budgets slightly different this month. i don't just have x amount of money to spend on myself anymore. we both have a small amount of blow money each week, then a needs section that we both share (and i will need the most). it's good for us because we will now be even more disciplined than we were before. it's bad because i wanted to purchase several different teavana teas and am not able to. i definitely think i'll be saving my blow money for a few weeks. even if that means i have no social life... these teas were just incredibly fantastic.

well i'm off...

today's agenda:

showering

meal planning

grocery shopping

going to the vet

cleaning up the house

yoga

going to church!

hope you all have a great day!!

and i cannot figure out why the font changed colors in the middle of this blog!!

oh well...

all pictures courtesy of teavana.com