because it's been awhile and i like questionaires!

1) What's a fact about the last person who called you?
he’s in Orlando being a big shot and his grown up job. my fiance is kind of a big deal.

2) Its 4 in the morning, your phone rings who do you expect it to be?
one of my sisters

3) What is your favorite thing to eat?
i enjoy thai food…what with the chop sticks and tastiness & all.

4) Where was your default picture taken?
tacoma, Washington at Point Defiance…right after randy asked me to be his wife.

5) Do you wear a Cross?
no, i mix up the jewelry. sometimes i wear a fish.

6) Did you have a good weekend?
it was kinda lame. but very relaxing, and i slept 11 hours on saturday night!

7) Do you prefer warm or cold weather?
warm. for sure. don’t get me wrong, i love winter accessories, but there’s nothing like a warm afternoon or a perfect summer morning.

8) What do you currently hear right now?
papers shuffling & keyboard clicking.

9) What do you think your best friends are doing right now?
working.

10) What's your favorite Gatorade flavor?
i don’t like Gatorade. but if i was really dehydrated or something, i’d go for the blue one.

11) What’s your favorite thing to have on your bed?
myself.

12) What's the nicest text in your inbox say?
i just can’t tell you that. randall has a gift with words…i have lots of texts i refuse to delete because they’re so sweet.

Bridal Bliss.

okay, i suppose it is time for an update because a lot of things are different in my life as of late. i realize my last post was a numbered update, so I suppose it's time for highlights and lowlights.

HIGHLIGHTS of my life: randall asked me to be his wife on may 31. i said yes. i have started training to teach classes online for the Art Institute and i'm really enjoying it so far. i have wittnessed the incredible and rapid provision of the Lord...He is so so good. i am amazed. randall & i have been going to church at New Community in Logan Square and i reallllly like it. these are perfect summer days and i'm delighting in them each possible moment that i can. registering for gifts, get serious.

LOWLIGHTS of my life: wedding planning has taken over my life. (it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make me feel guilty a lot of the time, whether it be because of wasting my work day away googling budget weddings on the internets or all of my conversations with everyone somehow ending back at wedding business.) my favorite sunglasses broke. LEED documentation...that's all i'm doing at work and it's less than motivating. being far away from my family for all wedding/bridal excitement.

that was nice. i'm basically real happy these days (also real tired). i'm going to springfield/taylorville this weekend to see beth's house & such. also, probably to spend time with my mom & sister and hopefully dawn. right NOW i'm going to starbucks to meet up with randall...he's working away on an editing project so i'm going to join him with the book he's editing in tow.

it has been so long i'm not really sure where to begin or end...but in an attempt to keep things short, i'm just going to give you a list of things worth mentioning:

1) there was a 6' cougar killed 4 blocks from my apartment a couple weeks back. you probably read about it but had no idea you knew someone who could have been eaten by it

2) i have finished my work on the $2M residence i was working on in mumbai, india. it's called antilia and it is 27 stories. if this peaks your interest, you can go here to read more (you probably should, because you may never have the opportunity to read about a snow room again).skip the welcome screen: http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/30/home-india-billion-forbeslife-cx_mw_0430realestate.html 

3) naturally i have been spending lots of time with randall. we are anxiously anticipating reasonable weather so that we can start spending all our time outside. i've never wanted spring to be here more than i do right now (she says on a windy 54 degree day in the middle of may). anyway, we've been going to weddings, riding bicycles, watching Gossip Girl, eating oreos, shopping at aldi and lots of other things.

4) worth a seperate mention is Vito & Sara's wedding...it was last weekend in bay city michigan. randy was in the wedding so i rode all the way there with the payleitner family. we had the wedding time wrong during planning phases and ended up driving REAL fast (after our 1.25 hour breakfast at cracker barrel--before we realized we were an hour off on the time of the ceremony--NOT related to the time change), changing in the car, watching amanda get greener by the minute (car-sick girl), nearly running out of gas (in fact, we kept driving after the MTE screen read 0 for a minimum of 4 miles through a wildlife preserve)...then running barefoot across the street and into the church 2 minutes after 2pm. it was...a miracle. the return trip led us on an interesting adventure to turkeyville USA...worth a looksie people. trust me.

5) randy's parents are meeting my parents next weekend in springfield. *gulp*

6) my addiction to starbucks lattes is borderline rediculous. i think about them at least once a day. i endulge more than i should.

surly something more noteworthy has been happening...but perhaps not. hope you enjoyed the updates. more to come some day i'm sure.

HIGHTLIGHTS and LOWLIGHTS of my weekend:

Friday HIGHLIGHTS: leaving work early because of moving day and getting manicures with amy, picking randall up from the airport, discovering that i like starbucks skinny vanilla lattes

Friday LOWLIGHTS: discovering that i like starbucks skinny vanilla lattes, the construction crew cone guys causing an extensive traffic jam from the airport...to lay cones (randy rolled down the window and thanked them for being so helpful).

Saturday HIGHLIGHTS: surprise birthday celebration with the parents, car trips with randy (adventures in odyssey is now part of my life), visiting my grandma, playing pit with the fam and laughing REAL hard. i love that game. also, randy bought me giant checkers from cracker barrel.

Saturday LOWLIGHTS: pancakes that tasted like meat

Sunday HIGHLIGHTS: test driving beach cruisers with randy, deciding that i really like new community (it's the church randall & i have been going to), icecream on child-sized swivel barstools, spending the whole day with my sweetie (i don't care if that counts as gushing, he's real fun)

Sunday LOWLIGHTS: going home at the end of the day

i am amazed. God loves us so much...i am clinging to this scripture:

1 Peter 5:5-11 

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s almighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

day, after day, after day i have been humbled by God's sweet pursuit of me. he wants me all to himself and i am learning more & more my desire to be completely his. absolutely surrendered to his authority, his power, his grace, his love...his mercy.

i have been meditating a lot on obedience...and what a perfect time to think about the significance of Christ's obedience to death on the cross so that we may have life. a personal, intimate love relationship with the creator of all things. it is because of Christ's obedience that our disobedience is wiped out, invalid, void. the month of february was perfect...not because i got anything right, because i basically got nothing right. but because i SAW the Lord chasing after my heart, desiring that I be pure and perfect. and he was faithful to lay things on my heart that he was commanding obedience in. i acknowledged those things and i moved on....thinking, okay, i'll do it. i'll be obedient. but then i found myself not doing any of those things...and through wise counsel (completely on accident-or another moment of grace from the Lord) i realized that i had been chained down by the whole concept of obedience and i was paralyzed with fear. but the truth is that the fruit of obedience is exactly the opposite. it is freedom. freedom from the things that really do chain us down...our sin. and the perfect thing about it all is that God wants to help us. he wants us to be obedient but he wants us to rely on him for the strength to follow through. in reality, we have no hope of following through without his help.

finally, for once, i am gripping onto the idea of being dependent. and what an amazing God I have to grip onto.

Christ was humble and then obedient to death (Phillipians2). meaning humility has to come first. It had to come first for Christ, and we are no different. so i've been praying for humility. for joy in obedience. and for the delight that overwhelms me when the Savior draws me closer to himself. the God of all grace will restore me. he will make me strong and steadfast. Praise be to God.

i have been brought back to the point of brokeness (meaning, crying in front of others-which i hate, and feeling on the verge of tears every moment) for the past few days. and i'm so thankful. my body feels weak and tired of fighting, but my spirit is alive. God has breathed life into me. and i am clinging to the fact that my identity rests in Christ...i don't have to be anything else. i don't WANT to be anything else. just his. my identity was formed with Christ's death on the cross. and was made valid by his resurrection. i can't think of anything more perfect than that.