The random guy, and what he was up to...

On my wedding day several things stand out in my mind, but I will only mention one for now. The music was softly playing, my knees were knocking, and the church doors were just about to swing open to reveal my Pete at the other end of the aisle. The moment came, and dad squeezed my arm and we began to walk. All of the sudden, this random, blond guy that I had never seen before, stands up an takes a picture of us. The tranquility of the moment was over, and then I began wonder who he was. I started telling myself, "look for Pete...", but thoughts of "who was the guy?" kept crowding out that thought.

Now I know who he was! He was a friend of another photographer who kindly stepped in the help out. I have a bunch of pictures from him, yay! Some of them are a little dark, but here are a few for your enjoyment.

For the obligatory update: Currently, Peter is in Iowa, and I'm here in Virginia. We had a huge storm come through on Wednesday. It was bad enough to send the staff here to the basement. The power was knocked out and didn't come back on until sometime Late on Thursday or early this morning. Happily for me, I was able, after running Peter to Dulles, to head home and give our house a much needed spring clean!

Also, over Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Illy for my sister Jane's wedding. I do have some pictures, but my camera is daid, and so don't have them up here just yet:) She was a lovely bride:-)





gotta have that first kiss shot...























awww, my mother and grandmother...in Mary Kay that is....

Crowing!

In the world of my Mary Kay unit, when someone does something awesome and extra, either they get to crow for themselves, or others crow about what they did.

I get to crow about my awesome husband!!

Check it out:



Yep, pretty spiffy. Here he is looking proud and super cute.





He worked on this project while Erica and I went to MK career conference in Baltimore. Gotta be honest, I wasn't really thrilled about going, but it turned out to be a great weekend. Lots of inspiration. Heh, there are those who think I won't do well at Mary Kay, and that's alright. I'm still gonna do the best I can. What's wrong with trying hard to accomplish something, right? If it means down the road that I can leave my 9 to 5 and become a mommy, then it's worth it. That is most of my motivation; that and Peter, who keeps encouraging me to stick with it.

Here we are. There were 3000 women there!



Hope you all have a great day!

Julie for P&J

Marital bliss for us equals...

Sitting on the couch and making funny faces into the camera?



Happy faces for all?




Ah, that's more like it!

Yeah, we're sappy, but hey, what can I say??:)

A Random Dream...

I don't usually remember dreams very vividly, but this one was about as crazy as they come and I had to share.

My memory of the dream began with the exciting news that I was expecting a child. Funny thing was I hardly showed the whole time. In my dream I remember being in a hospital delivering...and then I fell asleep. When I woke up I was back at home in Illinois, but there was no baby. I remember walking around kind of in a daze knowing something was wrong, but not sure what. I'd ask Peter, (who was also randomly there with me at my parent's house) what was up, but he seemed to think nothing had changed. One day I was particularly grumpy with my mom and she asked what was wrong. It was then that I fell apart and wailed, "where's my baby!?" (Folks, it was really sad! I was crying so hard.) Mom said, "ohhh, so you do remember". She didn't seem to know what had happened exactly, but she new that SOMETHING had happened.

That's when the investigation began. Peter and I went to this hospital to try to find out what happened, since nobody seemed to know if there even ever was a baby. We talked to hospital staff and they could come up with no answer. Finally a nurse told us the truth. They had accidentally given away our baby to the wrong family. The problem was, they didn't know who they had given it to. Yikes!

This next part I don't remember much about. I remember being with Peter in a big building and I know we were searching. (I think my family was there, too.)

The next part is the best, most random part of all. Peter and I were with my family in a large, sunny stadium. The stadium was like the ones of ancient Rome. An official looking man was on stage and he was talking to a large crowd about our situation. Apparently, the nurse had told a lie when we talked previously. The babies, (yes, twins) had actually not survived. I remember sitting there in my sorrow, feeling the sun beat down upon my upturned face. heh. Suddenly the man said they has something to give to me.

Can you guess what it was?!

Two huge doors swung open to my right and a group of royally dressed men brought out what looked like a tray. The smiled kindly, apologized for my sorrow and grinned from ear to ear as they pulled off the cover to reveal two.....

BLUEBIRDS!

Yes, folks, bluebirds. And get this, they had named them the same names that Peter and I had chosen for our twins. (I can't remember what they were either!)

I was so happy with the bluebirds! LOL, so random. My sadness was gone, then end.

Okay, first--I'm not announcing anything, but I woke up thinking, what in the world? Bluebirds? So, I had to share. I know there were more random things in there, but I can't remember anything else.

I had great intentions...

I did. I planned to write an uplifting post about God's sovereignty in the midst of fear and uncertainty, but, at the end of this work day I'm feeling drained and uninspired!

Work has taken a busy turn with a recent ruling in the state of California. Visit: www.hslda.org to learn more about that. CA is one of my assigned states for calls, and the calls have been pouring in. Since I'm feeling no inspiration to write further on my thoughts on that, I'll leave it here. Now I shall update you on our lives. heh, as I was recently reminded, Peter's been sick for a long time.

We're busy. The end.


hehe, just kidding. But, really that explains most of our lives. This has been my busiest winter and HSLDA. Usually spring and summer are busy, but fall and winter didn't see much slow-down for me this year. Over the fall and winter Peter kept busy tracking legislation and calls, while I worked to get ready for conference season, and got hit with many calls from CA.

We are both in a discipleship program at church. It's challenged us to memorize scripture and to make Bible study, prayer and reading a part of our daily lives. We also have a weekly Bible study we attend. Right now we're charging through 1st Corinthians.

Then, my new venture: Mary Kay Beauty Consultant! I know! Who would have thought? My sister, Janessa, helped plant the idea in my head, and I signed up at the end of November, 2007. At first I was intimidated....really intimidated. But, thankfully I have lots of support through my local unit and Marilyn in IL. I have to admit that I have fallen in love with the products. In January I did 30 faces in 30 days and in February I signed up my first new team member. This month, I've felt a little like I'm drowning, but, I've done some Mary Kay sales so far. It's fun and maybe one day, it'll be my business right from my home. That's my goal!

If you want me to make you beautiful, let me know!


Peter and I love being married, and no, I'm not just saying that. It's really awesome to love and like the person you marry, you know? We enjoy each other company so much, and love to spend our Saturdays cooking, cleaning and preparing for the next week of madness. Oh, and we also date each other when we have an evening free. I'm so excited that spring is coming. We love doing doing things together outdoors.

In a few weeks we'll be going to Illinois to spend some time with my family. We're really looking forward to that.

It's true; our lives are busy and full, but wonderful all at the same time. We are blessed and so thankful for God's goodness to us.

So, there's a quick update.

Julie

:(

Peter's sick now. We seem to be trading illness back and forth. So, pray for him...he'd really appreciate it.

and some more...