don’t date to marry, but marry to date!

My wonderful husband took me on a date this weekend. We had such a beautiful time together. We sat outside an Italian restaurant while the sun went down. We ate some awesome food and just enjoyed each others company.

For some reason I was reminded about when I was in high school and shortly after I didn’t date very much. I do, however, remember having those flinches-questioning, “am I missing out?” Which I think is normal, but looking back now I am so thankful that most of my “dating moments” have been as a married women. I’m so thankful that I didn’t give too many of those sweet times away to anyone other than my husband.

Table for two please! :)

Fall is coming!!!

Fall is coming!! Fall is probably my favorite time of year! It is just a sweet time/season during the year! My husband and I have a lot of trips that will be leaving us out-of-town quite a bit this fall- which is super exciting. We love traveling and having adventures for Jesus!
October through February we have: a little weekend get-away with the out friends the Keeling's! The seven:ten fall retreat. High schools Mexico missions trip. Jr.High winter camp. High school winter camp. And possibly Caborca Mexico missions trip depending on God's timing. Fun stuff! I will keep you updated inbetween the trips!

fun and new things...

How cool is this! It's a tote bag/organizer that you can hang in the office or by your front door to keep all your "goodies" in! Love, love it!

some fun and new things! part 2 :)

Freezer label bags to put a date on your food! Super cool, Love theses!

Growing pains…

It is never easy learning and growing as a child of God. God stretches, molds, pushes and pulls his kids because he wants what is best for them, and ultimately he is making us look more like Jesus. What an awesome God we have that He cares so much to be so in-tune to our insignificant lives. However, that process of growth and experiencing His love can certainly be painful at times.

Healthier than pasta!

Here's an alternative serving suggestion for the pesto you make from this season's plentiful fresh basil. Instead of spooning the green sauce onto pasta, use it to enliven a warm tomato salad. Heat a saute pan, and add two tablespoons of pesto, followed by a pint of sweet cherry tomatoes. Saute just until the tomato skins begin to wrinkle. Serve as a side dish while still warm.

www.marthastewart.com

happy birthday gwenie!

Today will be the first time I am able to celebrate my new mother-in-laws birthday! What a sweet time! Happy birthday Gwen! We love you!

encouragement and growth through books!

I just got done reading this book a little while ago and I LOVED it! It was a great way to enhance my relationship with my God through prayer and a way to feel connected to my husband as I was praying for him. It also focuses on the wife's heart and motives in her praying life... convicting and encouraging! It would definitely be one of my top 5 and strongly recommended!

no more prying and scraping!

A great way to get old/melted wax out of your votives is to place them in the freezer for a few hours. This will allow the wax to shrink and it will pop right out. No more prying and scraping!

Forever, For always, and No Matter What!

On Thursday it will be my Dads parent’s 50th anniversary!
What a time to celebrate, for so many years together!
Wow, I can’t wait to be in there shoes- with all the experiance inbetween!
Congratulations to the Kubli’s!

clean, safe and homemade!

I have a friend whom I adore and share a lot in common with! She shared some homemade cleaning products with me and I wanted to share them now with you!!

Here are some safe and inexpensive homemade cleaning supplies you can make and use in your home!

All purpose cleaner
2 cups water
¼ cup vinegar
1/2t natural liquid dish soap
(use on counter tops, windows, etc.)

Toilet bowl cleaner
Baking soda
Vinegar
(sprinkle baking soda in bowl, followed by vinegar- scrub and flush!)

Oven cleaner
½ cup baking soda
Water
(sprinkle baking soda in oven, spray with water, let sit for a few hours, scrub/clean- then rinse!)

Floor cleaner ( wood, linoleum, tile)
¼ cup vinegar
1 gallon of warm water
(mop and rinse)

Furniture polish
1 cup olive oil
½ cup lemon juice
(mix in spray bottle and use with rag)

blue door!

I LOVE this blue door! It reminds me of when I was in North Africa!

pretty pearls!

An excellent wife who can find? Her worth is far more precious than rubies and pearls.
Proverbs 31:10

I don't know about you but I want to be a pretty pearl!

leadership and submission

This family has it figured out!
They are giving the example of how God has designed the husband to lead his family and lead his household, while his wife and children follow and submit his leadership under the Lord.

“Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” Ephesians 5:22-24

What a joy it is to follow my husband and to obey my Lord!

we approve!

Joel and I had our first "fresh & easy" experience last night when we went to get our groceries for the week. We loved it! Here's why...
1. it was super close to us! ( unlike trader joes, sprouts, or bashas (not saying that we could ever stop loving them! )
2. it wasn't overwhelming with too much stuff (unlike regular grocery stores )
3. there wasn't too many people there.
4. it was cheap!
5. and it was super FUN... I was the cashier and joel was the bagger! :)


not to mention the $5.00 off coupon from the mail!!!

Yay for Fresh & Easy!
We approve the new neighborhood market!

freshen-up!

We don't think about it often, but the air inside our homes can become polluted- especially for us in the summer because we have to shut our door and windows so tight to keep out that unbelievably hot weather out side.

A great way "freshen-up" your home is to air out some of that "bad air" that get stuck inside.
I know its still pretty warm but if you get up early enough you may have the opportunity to open the doors and windows for at least a few minutes to bring a fresh breeze through!

back to 7:10

Joel and I chose to step out of our collage ministries ( 7:10 ) when we got married. We knew that our priority and our "main" ministry (our focus) was serving in student ministries, and we also knew we needed to cut down on doing "too much" to make sure we were taking time out for our marriage and not spreading ourselves out too thin, leaving everyone at a loss.

Since we have made that decision God has given us a bigger desire and love for student ministries. It has confirmed that this was really where our hearts truly were and where Jesus wanted to be used through our lives.

However, we have unexpectedly been given the opportunity to come back and serve in the collage ministry this semester. We don't know how long or necessarily why God has brought us back, but we are excited to find out. We may not know the reason, and that's okay because we know its NOT a mistake.

I have been praying that my heart would be transformed to be ready to love with a sincere brotherly love and that I would be earnestly ready to pour into others, instead of going because I "have to."- which could easily be the case. But I feel God answering prayers, because we are ready and we are excited!

I have been motivated by a verse in the bible; its 1st Peter 1:22 it says;
"Having purified your souls by your OBEDIENCE to the truth for a SINCERE BROTHERLY LOVE, LOVE one another EARNESTLY from a PURE heart."

Pretty cool huh!?

Camping and Charlie!

Well, here are a few pictures of our trip to the Grand Canyon. As I shared before we were going to take my little Nome, Charlie, and take pictures with him everywhere we went. ( it ended up not working out as well as I wanted it to, due to laziness on my part. ) But here are a few pictures, just for fun! :) enjoy!

more of Charlie...

on are way....

sleeping with Charlie

our camp ground

see Charlie on the table :)

love birds

here we are enjoying our time together at our camp ground!

isn't he sweet! :)

joel and the canyon

grand canyon sunrise!

Saturday morning before we headed back home we got up super early and watched the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. What a sweet and special time! Here are pictures for you to enjoy of what the process looked like as the sun came up.

sunrise part 2

sunrise part 3

Here it comes...

sunrise part 4

There it is!
( I went backwards on the pictures, so hopefully the pictures went it order for you! )

my joy to share with you...

Hello, its been a while since my last post because we were on our weekend get-a-way, and since we don't have the Internet at our home sometimes it makes it a little difficult to get on the computer to post new post. But I have some time today so I will make up for the lost time and post some pictures of our trip and some other new things going on! Thanks for coming back and enjoying my blog. It is my joy to share our life with you!
Because of Jesus, Sarahb

cute huh!?

I thought this was darling...it is a picture of the first Starbucks (or so it says) cute huh!? I love it!

Can I get a... tall, soy, chi tea latte and a grande black-n-white mocha for my sweetheart please! :)

sweet place!

I don't know about you but I wouldn't mind living there!

my biggest fear!

Yesterday at church, I just sat in tears. Tyler Johnson had a wonderful analogy about how some Christians can become numb to hearing the gospel message. He said it sometimes looks like an immunization. Here's why. An immunization gives you a little bit of the sickness (that you are trying to avoid) to allow your body to be immune to the sickness before you actually get the sickness. Here's how he related it to the christian life- for a faithful christian who has heard the message of the gospel over and over again ( for an example- every weekend ) it sometimes can leave a person "immune" to it. Therefore a lack of passion, and an unresponsive heart of worship is what comes from it. Oh, how I pray that this would never be my heart. This would probably be my biggest fear! The fear of becoming numb to the message of grace, and to one day not be effected by the amazing story of what Christ did to resuce me and save my life!

I just don't understand how we could ever grow tired of that?!

our little friend!

Okay... this is our little friend... Charlie!

( I know its hard to see him and he is sideways- I apologize.)

Charlie is a Nome and he is going to come camping with us- we are going to make a photo album with him and he will come everywhere with us and be in all of our pictures...just to make it fun!

Next week I'll have some pictures to share... :)

can't wait to try!

Well, I won't recommend this for "good-health" haha but I'm sure it is satisfying!

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm super excited and would love for you to try it with me.

This is the ultimate camping Chocolate Chip Cookie Smores

3 bananas

10 store-bought chocolate chip cookies (the larger the better)

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup small marshmallows

1 cup chocolate chips

Cut the bananas in half, lengthwise in aluminum foil and place in the fire, skin side down just until warm. Remove warmed banana from the skin and cut again in half.

For assembly:
On a piece of aluminum foil, place 1 cookie. Top evenly with banana slices, marshmallows, chocolate chips, graham cracker crumbs and top with another cookie. Wrap foil around the sandwich and place in the fire until warmed through and melted.

Wow! Huh!?

a few snacks for the trip...

I thought I would share some recipes for a few snacks I'm gonna take on the trip..

Granola bars
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups low-fat granola mix (not cereal)
1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut
1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Combine brown sugar, honey, vanilla and butter in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat; simmer 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Cool.
Meanwhile, combine granola, coconut, raisins, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and almonds in a large bowl. Stir brown sugar mixture into granola mixture. Spread in a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan. Press remaining chocolate chips into top. Refrigerate 2 hours or until completely cooled. Cut into bars.

I substitute a few of the ingredients but this is what the recipe calls for... enjoy!

little get-away!

I've lived in AZ since I was born and I have never been to the grand-canyon...weird I know, but it seems kinda common for natives like me. However, that is about to change pretty quickly because my dear husband just made reservations to go camping, and not just any camping... but camping at the grand-canyon! I'm super excited. I can't wait to see what God did there!