I almost feel famous...

So I can't really take any credit for this, but I just found out that the photographer for our wedding was a Top 10 image winner for this photo in contest for BRIDE magazine/WPJA.

Weird. But cool.

Here's the link to his post about it and the judge's comments if you care to take a look:

http://www.philipthomasblog.com/2009/10/13/top-ten-image-winner-for-2009-brides-magazinewpja-contest/

The judge's comment was touching, but almost made me laugh because this picture always reminds me of how out of it my mom was on that day. Seriously, she was in a daze, floating around the room...she hardly remembers coming up and putting her head on my shoulder at all. I guess thats why you hire a photographer!

But I do love this photo of me and my mama and I am glad that Philip is using it :).

yipes!

***UPDATE***

Just found out that Ben passed his first T-1 flight! Praise the Lord--thank you for your prayers!!

He did really well!

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Ben has his first flight in the T-1 today!! Definitely keep him in your prayers...we will let you know how it goes!!

ben's new friend...kind of

This is a picture of the T-1a Jayhawk, the Air Force Jet that Ben will soon be flying. We're still deciding whether it is really our friend or not.

For the past week, he has been getting really intimate with it and all its inner workings--learning everything about this little jet. Almost like getting to know a best friend or a spouse...but well, not as friendly or forgiving when you forget what one of its buttons do.

Ben has been taking test after test on the systems of this plane, its emergency procedures, and some other stuff that was probably too complicated for me to remember.

God has been really merciful to him and he has passed all of his tests so far! He has one more to take tomorrow, and then could start flying as soon as Wednesday.

He is pretty exhausted, actually we both are. Ben said that the Air Force should give me half a wing when he gets his wings because I help him study and kind of act as his wingman. :)

I'd be down with half a wing.

Anyway, the point is....these past couple of weeks have been hard. The Lord has really been sustaining us, but Ben especially is really exhausted and still has soooo much to do.

One of his instructors made an analogy of a flight student going through T-1 training as being like a person stranded on a little boat, with all of these vicious alligators coming at him/her.

To defend their self, the person has to club the nearest alligators first and focus primarily on them, but at the same time, keeping their eye on the alligators that are coming up behind the others, because if you drop your guard, they will get ya.

May sound a little silly to some of you, but it describes very well what Ben & the other students are going through. It seems as though they have this never ending list of things they have to get done and they have to slow down enough to decide which ones take priority, and use good time management to balance the rest.

So its one of those weeks where we know 100% that we won't get through it without the Lord's divine hand. Please pray with us that Ben will have energy & perseverance to get through this difficult week and that he will complete all the things expected of him this week. Pray that he will be a shining light to instructors & students and that the peace of God will guard his heart and his mind in Christ Jesus.

Just so you know...

Jesus answered my prayer today and fall came to Pensacola. :)

YAY! I am so thankful for this beautiful weather. Thank you Lord!

home decor idea

This is a picture of the wall in our dining area, right behind our dinner table. Although its a pretty bad picture, at a not so great angle ( I blame it on the overhead lamp...it always gets in the way), I wanted to post it because I got all these vases for super cheap!

So if you have a problem knowing what to do with some empty wall space, and want an inexpensive solution, here's one way to do it.

The wooden shelves were given to us by some friends who were simplifying their house, so we thankfully got those for free, but I am pretty sure you can find them at places like Home Depot or Lowes for pretty cheap. They were given to us in their "natural" form, so we used some black paint we had on hand and painted them up to match our dining room table.

Then I went to Ross (but Marshalls or TJ MAX is great too, depending on what you have in your area) and was able to find all these really fun vases for super cheap! We are talking like $3-6 dollars each! The total cost for the five vases was probably equal to the cost of one vase at a normal retail store.

So even if you just need some vases & aren't looking for any decorating ideas, seriously check out one of those discount stores--you just can't beat that!

fall, where are you?

For many of you, fall may have already shown its beautiful face, but in Pensacola...it is slowly peaking out.

Very, very slowly. Actually, I think we are still in denial that it is fall; most days it feels like a mild summer. But I am ready for it to be here, so I gave my blog a fall face-lift!

We are still in search for the perfect pumpkins to put outside our door...last year we got lost in Alabama and bought ours at this really neat farmers market, but the seeing as we were lost, I don't know if we will be able to find it again :(

We were also blessed to be in Colorado during early fall last year and got to watch leaves actually change colors! It was amazing!

See!?! look at the color!

As we look back on last year, this fall looks very different from the last...and although sometimes we wish we were back in Colorado or in Texas with family, I think we are finally really settled here, and it feels like home. We feel at home in our church. At home in our apartment. At home in our daily tasks, and at home in our lives together.

So although, the Florida weather confuses our seasons a bit, we love the fall, and love the fun & special memories God has gifted us w/ during the fall season, this year & in past years.

Lord, please send the fall weather to Pensacola soon. It would be so wonderful.

But in the meantime I will enjoy my pumpkin spice lattes, blog makeovers, and fake fall leaves.

picnic friday!

Well, we took into consideration all the great advice we got on what we should do for our date night, and although we didn't go running through the corn maze in Milton (er sorry, erin), I took a picture of some really pretty stalks of wheat ( at least i think they are wheat stalks).

I am definitely thinking the corn maze may have to be a future date night outing.... I just can't get over the fact that there is an actual corn maze near us.

Welcome to floribama.

But I digress...

For our Friday date night we took the email advice of Ben's mama and went on a picnic! We pondered over where we would have our picnic very carefully, and finally decided that we needed to get out of Pensacola. Before living here we never realized what HUGE city kids we really are and sometimes we just need to pick up and see some new scenery.

So we chose Fairhope, AL.

For anyone living in the P'cola area, we definitely recommend it... the Downtown area especially, its super charming and has lots of fun little boutiques, antique shops & a really neat bookstore/cafe. Its just something a little different for this area thats not too far away.

So off we went, our fully loaded picnic basket & blanket in tote.

pretty wheat

the happy picnikers

the yummy food!! we had grilled corn, grilled mozzarella cheese sandwiches on sourdough and tomato/carrot basil soup. it was scrum.ditly.uptious.

and ben insisted on taking this picture.

he's so pretty.

we had a fabulous time---thanks for all the help w/ ideas, i will definitely store the others away :)