The No Surprise Gift

So my Birthday is coming up soon and I have really been wanting a nicer camera. Not like a "I am going to be the next big photographer and open my own business camera" but I nicer "point and shoot" camera that actually took decent pictures. As you should know by now Britt and I will be spending the summer in Colorado and I would love to have a better camera for our stay there and just life in general. 

So, without anymore delay, here it is, my soon to be Birthday gift!

 

 

  

Truth be told I absolutely love it even though I do not yet have the luxury of holding it in my hands. I can imagine it in my hands....

"Man, my fingernails looks bad..."

Anyway, I can imagine and it looks good! :)

Even though the gift is not a surprise, I don't care. The anticipation of having it is killing me! I love it! sometimes anticipation beats the feeling of surprise, in my opinion. I love both feelings but for right now I will live in the feeling of anticipation. :)

Happy Monday

Happy Birthday Dad

  Happy Birthday to my dad. I have never been so thankful for my dad and his life like I am today. I am thankful that he is here. The "odds" would say that he should not be but by God's merciful grace He is and for that I am so thankful.

I am thankful for the man that my dad is. The man that gets on his face before the Lord, the man who I personally saw many times in the mornings in the word, the man I know prays for me daily.

I am so thankful for my dads example. The life he leads. Forsaking everything for the sake of the gospel. Leading many people to the Lord. Acting out his faith on a daily basis, even now, lying in a hospital bed, living out that faith!

I am thankful that I am like my dad. I have three brothers and out of the four fo us I am the most like my dad. When I was younger it would frustrate me because being a girl and having a strong personality was difficult but I have learned how to use it for the Lords glory and now, looking back on my life and looking forward to the road ahead, I am so grateful and blesses to be like my dad.

My dad is one of my biggest hero's and one of my biggest fans. I am his only daughter and I love it! :) My dad was the keeper of my heart for so many years. He was my protector, provider and the person I could lean on. Even though I am married I know that he will never stop being there for me when I need him. Even now, as he lays in a hospital bed fighting everyday to get better, without fail every time I see him he asks, "How are you?"

Daddy, I love you so much and I pray for you daily! I am hoping and resting in the Lord during this stage of life and I can hear the words you always say over and over in my head, "He is always faithful!" I know that is true and I am so thankful for the legacy of faith that you passed down to me and that I will pass down to my children. I love you daddy!

Christmas 2010

Africa 2007

Wedding day, 2009

Update on the month of May

Wow! Life has been CRAZY and has not slowed down. I think that I am finally in the clear and might be able to actually take a breath here and there for the next few weeks.


We have been out of town the last 2 weekends and we were busy both weekends before that as well. That has taken up a lot of time not to mention everything that we have done in-between.

I am home though and able to actually update the blog.

Here is a picture of Britt and his two best friends from the second week in May. I just had to put them up here, I think they are really good pics!

I don’t have a lot of pictures from our trips but will post the few I have. Our first trip was to Dallas, TX and we celebrated my birthday and our 1 year anniversary. My birthday is on the 29th and our anniversary the 30th but we decided to celebrate a week early. While we were there we mostly swam, ate and shopped. It was nice to just relax and have a good time together. :)

Britt in the car on the way there...and half of me. :)

Here I am! haha

And again. :)

Our room! I loved the bedding!

Another view...

The bathroom...

The outside. - I did not have a picture of the outside so this is from the hotels website. :)

The swimming pool. Once again thank you to the Hotel website.

Downown Dallas.

I love this building!

This past weekend we went to St. Louis, MO to see Britt’s best friend Todd. We brought Todd’s girlfriend with us and had a great time hanging out and just having fun. Todd is leaving to go to North Africa for the summer so it was good to see him before he left.

Britt and I at Crown Candy. GREAT place to eat! :)

Katie and Todd!

The counter! haha

The outside.

Again.

I did not take many pictures this trip other than this day. We were really busy the whole time and since we had been to St. Louis before we didn't do a lot of the "tourist" things.

Now we are home and it is good to just take a deep breath, let it out and then of course tackle the massive pile of laundry. ;) Seriously though, this week SHOULD slow down a bit and it will be nice.

The main thing going on this week is that my little brother, Justin, is coming to stay with us for a few days. It should still be pretty chill though. If you did not know Justin was in the car accident with my dad and busted up his right ankle, right shoulder and two fingers on his right hand pretty bad. He has been in a wheelchair since the wreck but last week he was able to graduate to a pair of crutches so he is now able to climb the stairs at our apartment. We are going to have some fun this weekend but with his injuries most activities will be pretty calm so I think we will be hanging out by the pool, going to see a movie and eating lots of yummy sno-cones! It should be relaxing and I am looking forward to it!


I am going to jump back a moment here and talk a little more about Britt and my One Year Anniversary. I would have really liked to write a post on the day of our anniversary but we were out of town and it would have been crazy so consider part of this post the “One Year Tribute”! :)

When I look back over the past year it has FLOWN by. I never knew time could go so quickly. People always tell us, “Wow! You made it through the first year; it is always the most difficult year!” If that is truly the case then I am excited beyond words because this first year of marriage has been a joy and not even close to a struggle! I personally believe that marriage will get more difficult when kids come into the picture but for whatever reason a lot of people say it is the first year and that was just not the case for us.

It is probably because I married one amazing man! Seriously! He is so great and I am beyond blessed to have Britt as my husband. Until you are married and actually share your life with someone it is hard to understand exactly what people mean when they say they love their husband/wife more and more everyday. I can truly say that I love Britt at LEAST 365 times more then I did last year at this time. ;) So it is true, you do love the person more and more each day. Is marriage always perfect? No, in fact it can be quite difficult. Am I always an angel as a wife and Britt always a Saint of a husband? No, not quite. But the thing is that the Lord is the center of our relationship and because of that we have a great marriage that is full of lots of love, laughter and fun! I am so thankful to be married and there is no doubt in my mind, in fact one year later I know even more, that I married the perfect man for me.

Here’s to another year and then 60+ more!

Random Monday's

I love summer.

Two things that I really love about summer that are not your cliché (“Swimming”, “Vacation”, “Being Tan”, etc…) are:

*Flip Flops


*Green Tea

*Flip Flops – I love them. I live for them. I pray for warmer weather so that I can wear them. In turn, I think that flip flop tan lines are an adorable mark that summer has finally arrived.

*Green Tea – Iced that is. It is so refreshing. There are lots of flavors. It is simply wonderful! Try one of my fav’s: Starbucks – Ice Green Tea (Venti) with 2 splenda and some raspberry flavoring. It is wonderful! I also love Starbucks Lemonade-Green-Tea. YUM!

I am a summer girl. That’s just the way it is. I love summer!

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Happy News!

* I am going to be an Aunt again! Britt’s sister Beth is expecting her 4th child! We are so exited about this! This will make me an Aunt 6 times and counting. I just love it!

*I leave for Dallas in t-minus 101 hours and counting!
I. Need. A. Vacation.
No matter how short, this is needed. And people – I have birthday money and I am going to shop, shop, shop!

*I am going out with Hannah on Wednesday to celebrate “Our Birthday”. We share May 29th as a birthday and so it is fun to celebrate together, exchange gifts, etc… I am SO thankful for wonderful friends like her!

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Prayer!

*Yesterday was a little more difficult of a day concerning dad. He did not have one of his best days. There are always ups and downs but I ask that you please continue to pray for him!

*I have a prospect for a part-time job! It would be such a blessing. I have been looking for a part-time job since Britt and I will be working part-time at the BSU (Baptist Student Union) at OU and so I need something else to do.

*Please continue to pray for my dear friend Amy and her precious baby Ella. Pray for God’s perfect will. Pray that He chooses to spare Ella’s life and allows her to have some time here on the earth. Pray for Amy and that she will have a peace that passes ALL understanding. – Side note: I don’t think I ever understood the “passes all understanding part” until I was in a horrible situation. There truly is such a peace though!

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I hope that you all had a marvelous weekend and a wonderful start to this new week. Enjoy the beautiful sunshine!

Happy Monday!

100!

This is my 100th post! 100 and still going strong!

Does that make this my blogs 100 birthday? haha... I guess if I count a post like a birthday. That is retarded.

Anyway, I can hardly believe I have wrote something on this page 100 times. (I am trying to see how many times I can use "100" in this post)

I am wondering if there is really that much significance in 100 posts. Other than the fact that it is something to post about, probably not. Oh well, here I am anyway. ;)

I was trying to decide what I should to to commemorate this occasion. Maybe a list of 100 things, write 100 words, have a cake? haha... Then I decided to just write about life, because that is what this is anyway. Life, in the written word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~LIFE~

- Work ='s CRAZY. 'nough said!

- Britt and I went to eat at BJ's last night, shoe shopping (for him), and grocery shopping. We had such a great time! Seriously! I love how we can just do random things and still have a wonderful time.

If you have never been to BJ's -YOU SHOULD GO!- We LOVE it. Almost every time we get the "Parmesan Crusted Chicken" and split it. It was yum! In fact, I am really hungry right now and my mouth just started watering.

Shoe shopping was fun. Britt was in desperate need of a new pair of tennis shoes (Since he walks about 12 freakin' miles a day he kind of wore his other ones out!). We found a GREAT deal at Famous Footwear. If you need shoes, you should go there right now because they are having a good sale!

Then we went grocery shopping. I love grocery shopping with Britt. He pushes the basket, I walk in front with my little list, as I find things I toss them in the cart, and then he meticulously organizes the cart. It's cute, it works, we fit well together! :)

- Tonight we are going to go see a movie. Leap Year. It looks cute. I think that cute is the right word for it. I feel like seeing a cute movie.

- This weekend we don't have anything planned and I am HAPPY about that. I love lazy weekends. We will go see my family on Friday night or Saturday, and we are planning to have lunch with Britt's family this Sunday because his two older sisters, plus the nieces and nephew will be here. Other than that. Nothing. *Happy sigh*

- I need to remember that Britt has to get his drivers license renewed.

- For those of you who did not know, I do not work Fridays. It is nice. PLUS, this Monday is "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day". Of course I get that off because I am a state employee and we get everything off! haha...

So... Happy four day weekend to me! :). And Happy "100 posts" to my blog. And Happy "Thursday to you!"

Randomness

I feel like….
I always start my blogs now with how many days until the wedding. I can’t help it though! It is getting so close! 26 days! :) haha….

We had our second shower this past weekend. It was really good. We truly are blessed! My personal shower is tomorrow night and I am excited about that as well. It should be fun!

Britt has 2 more weeks of school! I can hardly believe it and I know that he really can’t! It is so crazy! He is happy about it. I think that if we were not getting married it would be more difficult for him but he has that to look forward to and I think that it helps.

We are still praying for jobs, one for Britt specifically. He has been looking at some positions at Hobby Lobby Corporate office and we are praying that something will possible come of that. It would be a great place for him to work!

I was thinking today about my birthday. It is coming up… It is actually the day before our wedding. I am sure that my birthday will get lost in the excitement of the wedding. I don’t find that to be a bad thing at all… I would WAY rather be getting married then celebrating my birthday. But…. At the same time I will be 21. It is exciting in a way! Most of my “Birthday gifts” our actually wedding things but if I could make a “Me only, Birthday wish list” this is what it would be….

-Wicked Tickets
-A Massage
-An ipod touch
-New Tennis shoes
-Gift Cards to: Target, Charlotte Russe and New York and Company.
-Tom’s Shoes
-Smash Box Photo Finish
-Bare Essentials gift card
-To go Swimming
-New Shorts

What is really at the top of my list though…getting married and a week all alone with Britt. Which… I will be getting! I am a happy blessed woman!!!

Happy Birthday: To the man I love! <3

I few things that I love about you....



We have fun together....

We take every nice photos together... (haha)

I know that we will always be able to laugh together...

I know that you will always hold my hand...

You CAN be goofy with me... :)

You asked me to marry you!

You dance with me even though dancing is not your "thing".....

Here are a "few" more reasons... (Ok, maybe more than a few!)

50 Reasons why I love you Britt Clay!

1. You love God more than anything

2. You love ME next! :)

3. You are slow to anger

4. You are pure and have remained so

5. You are a gentleman

6. You are continually seeking the Lord

7. You want to learn new things

8. You have strong convictions

9. You are honest with me

10. I know that you will always be faithful to me

11. You are the first and only man I love.

12. You are very good looking! :)

13. You are strong! :)

14. You are merciful

15. The way that you look at me

16. The way you walk

17. You do things for me just because you know I love it!

18. Your eyes

19. You bring me flowers for no reason

20. The fact that I love you more everyday

21. The fact that I learn more about you everyday

22. You talk good about me to your friends

23. You call me everyday while I am at work to check on me and see how my day is going.

24. You bring out the best parts in me

25. You make up for my weaknesses

26. I know that you will be a WONDERFUL father

27. You love me no matter how I look that day

28. You love me when I am having a bad day

29. Your wisdom

30. That you know things about me that other people don’t and still loves me the most.

31. You are the best friend that I have ever had!

32. You are THE ONE for me, the one I have waited for.

33. You were without a doubt a gift from God.

34. You are quick to forgive me

35. I can be crazy around you

36. I would rather be with you more than anyone in the world!

37. You have big hands.

39. You call me babe and sweetheart

40. Throughout the day you randomly tell me that you love me.

41. You are a good listener

42. We can tell what the other is thinking

43. You love my brothers!

44. You try to understand the way I feel even when it is hard for you to see.

45. You go on walks with me.

46. You love talking about “When we go to San Antonio”. It is so cute!

47. You will always be there for me no matter what.

48. You do not worry about things that you cannot control.

49. You pray for me and for others.

50. You are the man that I am going to marry and spend the rest of my life with! :)

I love you Britt! Happy 23rd birthday!

PS - To our readers: If you did not see the post below then you should look at it! It is pictures from our wedding shower.