A great day to end the year...

Today is a good day. Not only will we be welcoming in the new year tonight but it is the first day in twelve days that I have felt like myself. Thanks to the wonders of amoxicilin, I am on my way back to normal.

With that said, I feel like having some fun. I think lunch ( a huge one since I have not eaten my share of holiday deliciousness because I have been sick) and a movie. Then it will be friends and fun tonight to ring in the new year.

Like others I know, 2010 has indeed been a great year. Graduation. Marriage. Watching all my best friends getting married. Setting up my first home. My first teaching job. My second teaching job (long story). My first Christmas with my husband. My first White Christmas. It's been a pretty good year but something tells me that 2011 will have some wonderful things in store for us as well.

Until next year....

The Good Life

So we decided we needed some pictures on the blog. So here are some pictures . . . for the blog.

Riding on "Snowflake's" sleigh at Fantasy in Lights

Our hard fought Christmas Tree 

Cooking some Kebabs

Our stockings and Christmas Village

The Tree!!!

Good Times!!!

So it has been six months since Kayla and I got married already. I really cannot believe that times has flown by so fast. Tonight we went out for a nice dinner, and probably a little too expensive wine, but we had fun. We talked about how we feel that the first six months have been so easy. Not that this really surprises us, just that we were prepared for something a little more rough. I think the secret has been give and take, as well as good coffee. We know one another so well and whenever we get into a disagreement we "normally" are able to see things from the other side. Marriage is never perfect but where is the adventure in a perfect life? Thank you Kayla to for being everything to me. On a separate note we are completely excited about sharing the weekend with friends!!!

Change is gonna come...

This probably won't be a very long post because one, I am tired, and two, I don't have a whole lot to say. Josh is forcing me and hounding me about writing a blog post so here it is!

Over the last couple of weeks it has become very apparent to me that change is inevitable. After five months of marriage I feel that change, and a whole lot of it at once, is very close on the horizon for the Turners. New job possibilities and the beginning of the process of going overseas are flying from all over the place. It is exciting, scary, and a part of life. Through it all, Josh and I will be together and it will be an amazing adventure in the words of Josh himself. I love this crazy roller coaster.

Until another time!

P.S. I have been putting together a Thanksgiving cookbook for my children's parents and have received some delicious recipes from the parents. I will be sharing these with all of you avid readers...haha! Look for some delicious recipes in the near future!

Fall!!!

So it is finally Fall . . . This means pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns, baseball and football, scarves and jackets, boots and flannel, falling leaves and nipping winds, but most of all it means time with friends and families. This Fall is shaping up to be one of the greatest in memory. We will have parties and a wedding to attend and dance at; big holiday family dinners to eat at. Life seems truly better this fall. I feel a cold trip to Helen approaching and some winter camping needed. The only issue with this fall will be the time. Time needed away from work to go camping and weekends off to get to Helen. But even if there wont be time to do what I want I will always have time for coffee and movies with my beautiful wife, keeping warm under the blankets on the couch. Im excited to see where this fall will lead and sad to see the leaves fall into winter.

Happy birthday to the man I can now call my husband...

This is going to be a short post not only because I do not have a lot to say, but also because I am very tired and yes you can all laugh because it is only 8:47 pm. I am an old woman; what can I say.

I have decided that Josh is by far the more serious of the two of us when it comes to this blog. I am saying this for fair warning that you will rarely find a serious undertone to my writing; as Josh would say I like the things which would be referred to as "light and fluffy."

Well to move on, I will say that I had an awesome weekend celebrating the wedding of Allyson and Scott. It was great to see the two get married and it was awesome to meet up with all my friends again and pick up where we left off (apart from Kiley and Daniel; but we will see you Saturday). I miss all of my friends a lot and it hits me harder some days than others. That is why we keep coming up with all of these reasons to see each other. Halloween party come quickly because you are going to be so much fun.

I want to end the post by saying that I have the best husband in the world, but I am not too shabby of a wife myself. I cooked my husband's favorite enchiladas, brought him home his favorite candy, and a chilled bottle of the champagne we shared on the night of our wedding. All in all, it was a wonderful first birthday to celebrate as husband and wife. Happy birthday hubby!!

Well, look here....it was longer that I thought it would be.

Until next time....

Ramblings of the Mind

So I have been wanting to post about this for a few days but wanted to be able to find the words. I still don't have them but I really need to post so here it goes.

Music has always been an intricate and incredibly strong part of my life. I spent too much time venerating the music when I was younger and I remember when I became a believer how amazing and deep worship could be. Music had a way of bridging the gap between God and I. Over the past four years I feel that I have essentially lost my ability to go deep in worship. I suppose Bible College can do that to you. But about two weeks ago I was having my quiet time and I just couldn't get into prayer. (3:40am) So I left the house a little frustrated. In the car going to work I started listening to the new Dashboard album. (don't judge me)

The first song on the album is called Get Me Right. The song is a story about brokenness and redemption. I'm not trying to pretend that any members of Dashboard are believers but this song is more honest about the struggle that we all have with sin than 90% of the "Christian" music today. I found myself more broken than I have been in over a year. I'll save you the lyrics here but it was refreshing to be reintroduced to the world outside my clean christian cage. I have grown tired of Max Lucado, Left Behind, Jesus fish, CCM, the American Flag in Church, and so many other things that have become part of Christendom. Its honestly sad that a some what whiny hipster band could seem more real to me than anything from my own Christian Sub-culture. What have we lost? Are we even real to the world outside our churches? No wonder we are losing relevance by the day. We have to reclaim our world, not through the Republican party, or Democratic party for that matter, but through our own lives. Tolstoy said, "people speak about changing the world but never themselves." We need to seek God in the forgotten places of our world. Seek to be transparent. Seek to be real.

long day...

I guess I did not expect anything else out of two year olds when it comes to the routine being messed up. I mean even adults get a little weird when there routines get messed up. My assistant teacher was out of work today and they had a substitute in there to take her place. She was very helpful and all, but Eugenia and I just flow together in the room. We have a routine and we know what comes next without even saying a word. It is a lot of work to try and keep 11 two year olds on task (as if they ever really are) while catching the substitute up on what is going on. Not to mention taking 11 two year olds to the potty every hour when you have no one to switch off with is a daunting task. Let's just say that I love my assistant teacher very much and the normal routine of each day was crazy missed today. Tomorrow is much anticipated. But above all else, I love my job, love my students, and I missed them a little over the long weekend.

On a lighter note, I have an awesome wonderful husband (who I have been married to for three months now) who had dinner ready for me when I got home. Now I am going to wind down to a movie, a glass of wine, and two advil for the throbbing headache and old-woman backache.

And we will try to blog more.

Kayla

Food mmmm . . .

So with Kayla working and not getting home until 5:30 or 6:00 I have been cooking more and more. I have found that in many ways this is really enjoyable. Kayla can still have the weekends but for now it seems I'll have most weekdays. Yesterday I cooked a Tikka Massala meal with couscous and vegetables. I was surprised how much I liked it. I'm beginning to worry though. As I was making I made mental notes about ways to cook it better next time. What has become of me? With that said, I think I just might like this cooking thing. Im not saying I'm gonna try the Julia Childs cook book but at least it is fun.

Life is fast-moving...

Kayla here...

I thought I should put my two sense in for tonight and just share a little of what is going on. My life has become increasingly busy and chaotic; and no matter how much I love my job and the kids I work with, sanity is hard to come by. God has answered a prayer though and he has sent me a group of girls around my age that I can get involved in a small group with. I am so excited. Life after college does not lend itself to a lot of time with the girls (unlike my life in college) so this is a much needed time for me to act like a girl. I love the two year olds that I spend day after day with; they are hilarious, loving, and full of energy but there are some things that you cannot talk to a two year old about. Excitement has come and I will be looking forward to the opportunity to get to know the new girls.

On a lighter note, married life is awesome. I thought that surely there would be issues and problems when I entered into this eternal union, but I feel Josh and I are well prepared for the life ahead. I find myself reveling in fact that I get to spend everyday with this wonderful man. We are going to attempt to share our life together with you. We will see how it goes. Until we meet again...

A new life . . .

We are each starting a new life . . .

One that begins with us together and travels through a lifetime of adventure and happiness. We are excited to be stepping out on the cusp of a new world. One full of possibilities, full of the unknown. Hopefully this will be an outlet for our thoughts and ideas, from Kayla's recipes and opinions to Josh's rambles. We have found our happiness through our amazing friends, tremendous families, and in Christ. Now we feel the need to share our happiness. So a toast to the season of weddings, beginning of adventures and a life well lived.