My Best Friend

So I'm thinking it would be good to document something like getting engaged. February 20, 2010 will go down in history as the best proposal ever. As we had cheese and chocolate at The Melting Pot our friends Cody and Caryn arrived (surprise 1). Trevor said Caryn was going to draw a characature of us (surprise 2). Trevor asked me to marry him (long awaited surprise 3). Many hugs and smiles were to follow.


To give some history Trevor and I have been dating for 6 years. Ever since senior prom we have been together. While Trevor has many perks (good looks, great sense of humor, awesome hair), what I really want to write about is how he is my best friend.

Trevor and I have known each other since I was 12, but we didn't really start talking until 12th grade. AIM was quite the popular thing to do back then and Trevor and I started chatting. Through all those chats we became great friends and even band mates. Trevor would mention how he thinks you should really get to know a girl before you date them (I never thought he might be referring to me). Needless to say the rest is history.

The greatest thing about marrying Trevor is that he is my best friend. Our friendship was the start of our relationship and it will remain as we become husband and wife. He makes me laugh, makes me feel beautiful every day, and I know that he loves me. I think it is so important to be friends with your spouse. In Genesis 2:18 it says, The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Well, God sure knows what he is doing. Ezer is the Hebrew word which means assistance, support, or help. I am so honored to be Trevor's ezer and companion in life and that I am going to marry my best friend.

Joy vs. Happiness

I realize that I am not very good at this blogging thing. I guess you are supposed to write in it more than every 4 months. My bad. Anyway as I was sitting at home under a blanket I felt inspired to write.

I was thinking about a conversation that I had with Trevor a few weeks ago. It was about being happy. I had been dealing with some hard stuff and I made a comment about wanting to be happy. Trevor pointed out that we can't always be happy but we should strive to be joyful. I never really thought about the difference between the two, but as I let this process I realized how different the two are. Happiness comes and goes. It is not something we can control. It is a state of being and changes with circumstances. However joyfulness is a choice. We can choose to be joyful even in the worst of times. Trevor asked me if I could try to be joyful. I thought it was worth a shot.

So I began to look for joy in each and every circumstance. The one that really sticks out in my mind happened at work. I had been frustrated with my job and was feeling somewhat hopeless about it. As I was leaving the office I saw two kids that were in treatment foster care when I was doing my practicum in college. I knew they were looking for a forever family back then. However, they were at our office because they had been adopted and were having therapy with their new family. You should have seen the joy in their little faces. They jumping up and down and saying Dad a million times. They now had a dad, a real forever dad. They had a forever family and they were overjoyed. As I drove home tears filled my eyes. I remembered why I wanted to become a social worker and in that moment I was truly joyful.

So I would challenge you to look at the differences between happiness and joy. When you really think about it joy is a good way to go.

More adventures in the life of an adult

I have been doing more adults things lately. First as the last post noted I have made my first (big) car purchase. I am now the proud owner of a 2003 Saturn L300. It's pretty fancy and it even has cup holders (a luxury I am not used to). As I called my old car the gangsta car my new car shall now be known as the rice burner (because it reminds me of something off of The Fast and the Furious movie). It is a pretty speedy thing and Trevor is quite impressed with the engine. He keeps opening up the hood to show to his guy friends. When they look inside they all make manly noises so I guess that means it is nice. He tells me if I put some computer chip in it, it would smoke his car. Ha! However, the downfall is that my gas mileage would plummet. So, that will not be an option. All joking aside I really do like my new car. I also have to give props to Trevor's brother Zach because he helped me find the car.

Okay, second adult thing I have done lately is find an apartment. I was looking at buying a condo before the whole car dying situation. So, now that I have that payment I'm just going to have to rent for now. I'm pretty excited about the apartment I found. I got a great price on the rent because their prices fluctuate due to supply and demand. I am going to have a 2 bedroom so operation music room is a go! The music room even has a huge walk in closet that could be used for recording. I am looking forward to hosting things in my apartment as well. I really want to start a young adult group at my uncle's church and now I will have the place to do it.

So, yes those are a couple of exciting things in my life right now. Work is still keeping me crazy busy, but I enjoy it for the most part. I really like my boss and co-workers. We all get along well and it makes for a positive and fun work environment. I will try and put up some pictures of my car soon.

Car drama

So on Wednesday evening my car passed away (aka the cougar, the gangsta car, the grandma car). It lived a good life. Drove me from place to place, dependable, hard working. Yet it was just its time. So, since my office is over 30 miles from my house I figure I'm gonna have to buy another car. Let me just say that car shopping is stressful. I'm not enjoying it (probably because I was not planning to buy a car). One would think that buying a car would be exciting, but it's not. So to all you car buying veterans out there, I commend you. I'm going to look at some more tomorrow and hopefully it will go well. So goodbye to you my gangsta car. You will be missed.

It's been a while!

Well, I must admit it has been quite some time since I have posted anything. I started my job as a social worker and quickly realized how busy my life would be. So, things like facebook and blogging which used to fill my time, have now taken a back seat to having a career. For anyone who doesn't know I am working at a treatment foster care and adoption agency. It is the same place I did my practicum at during college, but I am now at the Albuquerque branch. I have been learning a lot and can't believe that I have been blessed with a job so quickly. An added bonus is that I have insurance! God is good! Some times I wonder why He takes such good care of me and I feel truely blessed. I have my own office which I have recently decorated with very bright colors and have a daisey theme going. I really enjoy all my co-workers and my boss is amazing. She has the same sense of humor and sarcarism I do, so we get along well. But the most amazing part about my job is working with the kids. These kids are so resiliant for all they have gone through in their lives. They make me smile daily and it is so cool to see when they are doing better in their treatment.

On a less exciting note I have had a rather difficult time adjusting to being a real adult. I never thought I would say it, but I actually miss college. Most of all I miss the amazing friends I made in Las Cruces, and I miss Cru (although I am excited to be back near my best friend Rissa again). I just didn't realize how much being involved in Cru shaped my life and how much I would miss it. So, I am trying to find my place in Albuquerque. I am going to my uncle's church (which is awesome) and Trevor started a volleyball group like we had in Cruces. It has been the highlight of my week. We play on Sunday nights on an outdoor sand court and it is loads of fun. It's no secret that I have a difficult time getting close to new people, so I am working on this, and trying to make new friends. Please think of me as I face this.

Okay, so I don't want to end on a depressing note so here is some exciting news! My band is going to play a show! It is at a church in Edgewood and there will be 4 other bands playing. Trevor and I are just working on getting a bass player and drummer. Our friend Mike will be playing bass, but we're not for sure on a drummer yet. We have a guy that used to play drums for us, but he is in the police acadamy and super busy. Hopefully this works itself out soon because the show is August 8th! Music makes me happy and sharing our songs with people is awesome to get to do. Here is a link to the event on facebook for anyone who might want to come. http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/event.php?eid=109732606554

Colorado Trip

This weekend Trevor and I drove up to Colorado to visit his parents in their new home. I didn't get any pictures of the house, but it is really nice. It is surrounded by hundreds of trees and feels very peaceful there. We did not get to enjoy the awesome deck due to it raining nearly the entire weekend. However, we did have a great time and got to see the sites around the Colorado Springs area.



There are three ponds in their neighborhood which are supposedly stocked at the end of May. Our attempts at fishing in them came out empty handed, but it was a fun experience. The funny thing was that there are houses surrounding these ponds and people probably found us humorous trying to fish in them.





Another place we went to was the Garden of the gods. It is a very popular tourist attraction and for good reason. One, it is free and two it is BEAUTIFUL. Sticking out in the mountains of Colorado are these red colored rocks that all have a very unique shape to them.

After we went there my camera died. :( It was too bad too because my favorite part came next. We went to the very close by Manitoo (sp?) Springs. It is this great little hippie town with many fun little shops and interesting people. It would be a fun place to visit and play music with the local musicians.

That night we went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. This was new experience for me beacause I have never eaten there and Trevor always raves about it. If I had pictures I'm sure they would bring a laugh because I was both embarresed and confused by the whole thing. The embarassing part was that our waitress brought out adult sized bibs for us to wear and wrote things on them. For example Trevor's said "My waitress gave me crabs." The confusing part came when I was trying to master cracking open crab leg shells. Dispite my embarresment, I am now a big fan of crabs and plan to cook some in the future.

It was nice to take the trip because I start my job next week as a real social worker!

MacBook!

For some time now I have had an itch to get a mac. Well, it has finally happened and I am now the proud owner of a MacBook. It is quite possible that I have spent the majority of the last two days playing with my new toy. Luckily, my awesome boyfriend has been a great help in teaching me the ins and outs of becoming a mac user. So far I must report that I LOVE my new computer. 

I am excited for my brother because this weekend his tennis team is going to state. It is the first year for his school to have a tennis team and they have done amazing. This will also be the first time I get to see him play so that is exciting as well.