Brittany's Buttons Winner

So a million years later, the winner of the Brittany's Buttons giveaway is...

Melanie from Modern Typography! 

I'm emailing you right now.

Update

My apologies.

I've been up to my ears in these

making these

for this.

One more day to get my rosette pendant necklace on GroopDealz! 

Dealz!

Guess who has a deal on GroopDealz this weekend? Me!!

A Few New Things

I listed a few new things in the shop tonight. Stop by and take a peek.

Anything you'd like to see in the future?

WIWW

I think this is what summer looks like.

Finding God

I have found that God is often in the little things. In the delicate things. In the things we sometimes overlook. In the challenges that make us stronger.

I have found God in many, many things and people and situations.

Where have you found God?

***

Like most of us, we can find God every day in all the ways He blesses us.

[Here's a post that I wrote for my friend Jami's blog that I thought I'd share with you.]

The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, and it's a bit overwhelming trying to sum up all that I'm thankful for.

So I'll do what I do best ... I'll make a list.

- I'm thankful for Him. That is provision is bountiful. That is love is unending. And that the life he offers is everlasting. He is my all.

- I'm thankful for the husband that the Lord sent my way. We complete each other in strange and funny and wonderful ways and each day I fall more and more in love with him.

- I'm thankful for our parents. For moms and dads who love us without condition and who have shown me and Kyle generosity that we can never pay back. We can only pay forward and show through the example of our lives the kind of son and daughter they raised.

- I'm thankful for my job and the joy I get in teaching, and mentoring, and living life with college students (literally living with them ... I do this). 

- I'm thankful for my talents and my creativity. Some of my favorite times are spent building something, gluing something, creating something beautiful that wasn't there before. 

Recently I saw a quote that said "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"

Powerful, huh?

Well, what if that were to happen to me tomorrow; if I woke up with only the things I thanked God for today. I confess that I don't think I'd wake up with very much. 

How do you find time to reflect on those things you're thankful for? In what ways do you thank God for the things He has blessed you with, the things that really matter?

I used to keep a gratitude journal. I think I started back when Oprah talked about it. It was cool then. Well, I think I need to dust it off and spend some serious time in thought and prayer. 

Our lives are full of joy and blessings. Whatever situations we find ourselves in, we can find those things, big or little, that are purely and utterly gifts from God. 

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built in  Him, strengthened in the faith you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." 2 Colossians 6-7

[Over the next few weeks, I'll have lots of wonderful women guest posting about where they find God in their day-to-day lives. If you've emailed me with an interest in writing, I haven't forgotten about you! I will be putting together a schedule and emailing you soon.]

AFTR Giveaways!

There are two AFTR giveaways going on this week!

One from Cap Creations

And one from Sand and Starfish

Yay!

Also, you can still get 30% off your order until tomorrow morning with code lauraloveskyle (because I do!)

Praying for Each Other

Each Monday I will be posting prayer requests so that we can hold one another up and pray for each other throughout the week.

You can e-mail your prayers requests to me at iamalongfortheride[@]gmail[.]com. I will be out of town today, so feel free to leave a comment with your requests.

Maria: For my Goddaughter Aya, who is suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorder. The family is suffering, too. She was adopted 4 years ago and hasn't really gotten any better. She's 8 now.

Oh Write: Please pray for our sweet boy, Truett, as he was recently diagnosed with a heart condition. This diagnosis will require surgery sometime during his first year of life. Please pray for my husband and I to have wisdom in making decisions about his care and treatment. Also pray for health and strength for Truett.

Melissa: My husband and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary in less than a month and I just ask prayer that God would keep growing us together in Him and we would find jobs that God would have for us and be able to pay off our student debt.

Maria: My friend Becca went home to meet Jesus today. Pray that her husband and two girls would find peace and great comfort in seeking the Lord during this time. Pray that they would pour their hearts out to Him in prayer and be comforted by the church body. Pray for her girls they are seven and four, so I'm sure it will be hard on their young hearts. We are thankful that she is no longer in pain, but it is truly bittersweet, she had such a beautiful heart for the Lord and people.

Also, my husband and I have started saving for adoption! This is a praise that we are very excited about! However, now the medical bills from all my thyroid issues are beginning to roll in and I am worried that we may have to halt on saving for awhile to pay for those. So, I would like appreciate prayer for us trusting the Lord to be our provider in this area. I would also ask for prayer on me maybe starting some kind of small business/part time job to fund our adoption desire. Pray that we would be sensitive to God's leading and choose to believe that He is bigger than numbers. 

Melanie: My husband and I could really use prayer this week as he and his doctors decide about an upcoming surgery. We have 3 children, the youngest of which is 2 months. Please pray that we will be able to make it through these hard times and give God the glory, trusting Him along the way. 

Monique: Please pray for my 2 month daughter, she is not eating very well and I'm afraid she's losing weight. I'm so worried about her.

The Story of How We Met

In celebration of our two-year anniversary, I thought I'd share with you the story of how my husband Kyle and I met.

Short story: 

We met through a mutual friend. I went to Ohio State University. One of my best friends at OSU went to high school with Kyle (who was at the University of Cincinnati).

Long story: 

One day in high school, I found a hubcap on the side of the road and decided to take it home. I collect a lot of things (I think I just collect collections), and thus began my hubcap collection.

I took my hubcap to college and hung it on the wall. I was an RA my sophomore year and my residents would bring me hubcaps to add to my collection. It was quite a collection.

 During his sophomore year of college (on the other side of the sate), Kyle and his roommate found a hubcap. They took it home and Kyle had a brilliant idea of turning the hubcap into a clock. Thus began their collection of hubcap clocks.

One day, one of my best friends (who was an RA with me) instant messaged me (remember that?) with a link to her friend from high school's pictures. I clicked on it and started to scan through some pictures of an apartment, and scattered throughout were hubcaps.

I messaged her back and said "I think he's my soulmate."

A few second later, up popped a message from the maker of the hubcap clocks (Kyle) and he said "hey baby, this is the hubcap king." 

Kyle thought he was just going to make a silly joke and then it would be the end of the conversation. Little did we know...


We talked online forever that night. We got up enough courage to call each other a few days later. And then in the spring of 2005, we met in person, and of course, Kyle brought me a hubcap clock.

We were married July 25, 2009. We had an antique hubcap on our head table at our wedding.

We have two hubcaps hanging in our apartment with many, many more in storage.

We will probably incorporate a hubcap or two into future nurseries. 

I know what you're thinking... really? Truly. This is how my husband and I met. I mean, could I really make this up?

Our love of junk still binds us together to this day (and many other things of course).

Kyle is my perfect match, my perfect partner. No, neither of us are perfect, but together we come awfully darn close.

Two years of marriage have flown by and I can honestly say that I love him more and more every day. I can't wait to grow old with him, and you better believe we're hanging up hubcaps in the nursing home. 

How Can We Pray For You?

How can we pray for you this week? 

How can we lift up your worries, fears, concerns, struggles to our Father?

Feel free to e-mail me your prayer requests for Monday's post.

iamalongfortheride @ gmail . com

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...

Colossians 1:8-10

***

Bring Hope Home is sponsoring an auction for adoption. Check it out here!

A Little Tour of the New Apartment

A bit of history. 

I run a residence hall at a university. I supervise the RAs.

2 years ago I was in hall A. I closed hall A for an 18 month renovation in December 2009.

We moved to hall B and stayed there for the next year and a half.

Last month we moved back to hall A and I will be opening up a newly-renovated beautiful hall A in August.

Catch all that?

Here's a peek at our new place. The Lord has truly blessed my husband and I with my job and our home. 

Welcome to our "house!"

Hallway from the front door (the front door is inside the residence hall in case you were lost).

Storage room on the left. Washer/dryer closet on the right.

The most amazing kitchen ever.

Dining area and living room (we have a bigger table now so it looks a little more full).

Living room.

The cat's new favorite spot...the coffee table.

We have a little patio with a grill and furniture forthcoming.

Hallway to the bedrooms/bathrooms. Yes, multiple of each.

Bathroom number 1. Rather boring right now.

Spare bedroom/craft room. More on that later.

Bathroom number 2.

Bedroom.

And larger than life closet.

These were taken we we first moved in. It looks a bit more lived in now. And a few things have shifted around.

What do you think??