One year of engagement

OH MY GOODNESS. We made it. Well, through a year (525,600 minutes) of engagement. A LOT has happened this past year. We got engaged (obviously) and then immediately jetted off to Europe!

We made the perfect pint at the Guinness Academy!

Met William Wallace (Bryan’s Hero).

Locked up our love in Paris.

And brought the 4th of July to our family in Southern France (Bethany not pictured).

And that was just the summer! In the fall we watched and cheered on Horned Frog Football, I dragged everyone to way too many bridal shows, I found my wedding gown, and we celebrated the holidays with our families. December 31st we rang in the New Year in style:

January saw quite a few changes. Nathan and Bryan bought a condo in Dallas (which meant lots of painting and decorating in the following months) and we found a new church home in City Church International- which has been an enormous blessing!

Over Spring Break we traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (read more here). We’ve made many trips to Chuy’s, Frankie’s, and Torchy’s- can you tell we like Mexican food? We have procrastinated wedding planning, but gained the help of our wonderful planner, Stefanie Miles. We’ve made countless trips back and forth between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Most importantly, we’ve started building a strong foundation for our marriage. Wedding planning is stressful, but this has been our best year yet and I know it will only get sweeter from here!

This was a few weeks ago at the Texas Ranger’s game.

These are just a few of my favorite moments of the past year- so much has happened this year and we are so blessed! I asked Bryan to tell me what his favorite moment of this past year was and here is what he said:

“The best moment in the past year with Rachel has actually come in just the last few weeks.

After many thoughtful discussions, a lot of prayer, and a lot of confusion, I finally had a moment of clarity a few weeks back.

Rachel and I have been getting more and more involved in our church and have really been seeking the Lord to put our relationship in his hands and back on the foundation it should have started on. Many times I have felt like I was failing in being the spiritual leader of our relationship. A few weeks ago I had a time of confession with a bible study I have started attending on my own. I asked the group for their prayers that the Lord would transform my heart and help me become the leader I know I can be in Rachel and I’s relationship. In this simple act of confession, the Lord immediately took my heart and made very clear to me some of the steps that I needed to take to put myself, and our relationship back on the right track.

Since then, Rachel and I have grown so much in our understanding of each other and our true need for reliance on the Lord to guide our relationship. We are certainly still in the early stages of this transformation, but I know that our hearts are in the right place and we are setting ourselves up for a lifetime filled with love, joy, and thankfulness for the gift we have been given in each other. I look forward to the next year, our marriage, and the rest of our lives together.”

WAIT. I am so lucky. Swoon.

This time next year we will be preparing to tie the knot and I know God will only continue to use us to glorify Him- Praise the Lord!

Enjoy, y’all!

Rachel

P.S. 365 days until I’m a MRS!

Inspiration

This past month we have really hit the floor running on this whole wedding planning thing! I am so excited to have chosen Stefanie Miles from Lavender Joy Weddings to help us plan this fabulous affair. Her first assignment for B and I was to come up with some wedding inspiration. This is not as easy as it sounds. I have so many ideas dancing around in my head and pinterest is definitely NOT helping! Stefanie had B and I fill out a survey (separately) so she could get a better sense of our style. We then had a wonderful 3 1/2 hour meeting, in which we looked at different pictures and I had to determine what I liked about them. I am horrible at making decisions, so this was a difficult, but fun, process.  Around the same time, Minted posted on facebook about their inspiration boards. So I hopped on over to the minted website and found an invitation in our color (bold brushstrokes) and collected some of my favorite gold, navy, and pink images to serve as inspiration. I love the feel of these images and hope to carry that happy feeling into our big day! :)

I will keep y’all updated as we make some more progress!

Enjoy, y’all!

Rachel

P.S. Only 396 days until I’m a Mrs.!

Lifelong Adventures: Part 2

Ah, Jackson Hole. This past week you have been dearly missed as I rushed to class, scrambled to get things done, and the weather in Texas has yet again plummeted to what I consider an inexcusable 41 degrees (it is almost April for goodness sakes!). It was a great trip. I informed you in my previous post that it has been about a decade since I last skied, which was terrifying; however, I was not as bad as I thought I would be! That is, until my trusty life partner decided that it was time I try a blue run about halfway through the day. Though I was nervous, I trust Bryan wholeheartedly and I decided to go for it. Poor life choices. I made it about halfway down the run before disaster struck, and by “made it” I mean that I yelled at Bryan to slow down and stopped about every 5 feet to say that I couldn’t do it. During a turn, I started picking up speed. This did not make me happy! What happened next, I imagine looked like something right out of a cartoon. I lost control and dove head first down the mountain. Skies flew, snow kicked up, legs and arms flung about, and eventually I came to a stop and just laid there. I will admit and few tears slipped out, and I did tell Bryan that I broke a rib, but it was really just a little hurt pride. And that is exactly what I told the nice ski patrol man who had witnessed the whole thing. I really wish we had documentation of this incident because I am sure it was hilarious. Bryan tried to convince me that I could make it down the rest of the mountain but, because I am stubborn, I used my poles to hike the rest of the way down like a fool. But I made it in one piece and that is all that matters.

I did ski again after that incident. In fact I found my most favorite run ever. It’s called CATS. If you know me, you know that I love cats. And that Bryan is deathly allergic. So I try to find cats in other parts of my life and finding this run was God telling me that I can ski because there are cats there. Very comforting.

And it was a green swirly! I think that means its a little bit harder… Go me! Here is Bryan rocking it on the mountain:

That all happened day one. The next day we went to the harder ski mountain. You can understand, based on the previous days events, why I decided not to ski a second day. However, I got the gondola and the tram pass so that I could still go up to the top of the mountain. About midway through the day we went about halfway up the mountain on the gondola for lunch. It was the most incredible view I have ever seen and THE BEST MEAL OF MY LIFE. No joke. Savory meatloaf on a ciabatta bun with onion strings on top. I’ll spare you the picture I took of it. I have no idea why it was so incredible, but I would eat it for every meal for the rest of my life. Often Bryan and I judge a trip based on how good the food was- this trip was pretty exceptional. This is us outside of the restaurant. The professional picture is much better, but I like this one too!

AWWW. Right behind us is Corbet’s Coulior, which is a terrifying cliff that people hike up to ski down. Because people are crazy. Later we took the tram up to the top of the mountain behind us. Hiking to the summit is a lot easier when you only have to go up about 15 feet after you get off the tram! By that point we were exhausted, but we posed for some pictures.

And then I took the tram back down the mountain while Bryan skied down. He took this picture on his way down…

CAUTION! ONLY CRAZIES BEYOND THIS POINT! Again, people are crazy.

The next day we just explored Jackson Hole. It is such a picturesque town. Outside of town there is an Elk Refuge where thousands of elk gather each winter. We went on a wagon ride around the refuge and got right up next to these elk! It was an incredible experience! Our fabulous guide is the cowboy in the back of this picture. As you can see- we ended up shedding our big coats the third day because it was in the 50s!

The elk shed their antlers every spring and local boy scouts go around and pick them up off of the refuge. They host a huge auction in May and use the elk antlers to make giant arches around town! Beautiful.

Bryan decided to be artsy when he was editing this one. What a guy.

Well I hope you enjoyed following us on our trek around Jackson Hole! We are meeting with our planner on Friday so be on the look out for a post about that!

Enjoy, y’all!

Rachel

P.S. 416 days until I’m a Mrs.!

Lifelong Adventures

So originally, I was so excited to have two years to plan my perfect wedding day- and most of the time I still am. I am engaged to the man of my dreams and I get to go to school everyday at a university that I love; however, those things are just happen to be opposing forces. My heart is often in two different places, which makes life difficult sometimes! I realized that lately I have taken to complaining about our situation instead of actually doing something about it. I am wishing away my time! Not cool, Rachel. Not cool. I am working to be satisfied with where we are now AND to make the most of the time we have together.

Well this upcoming week is Spring Break which means 9 full days fun with my b-dog! We are about to head off on one of our many adventures and this time it is to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. If you know anything about skiing then you think this is really cool. If you are like me, you are thinking to yourself, “why the heck would you spend your spring break in Wyoming?!” I get it. It’s kinda weird. But I also think it is going to be really cool. And I am going to be pretty dependent of Bryan, which will be a good test of our relationship. You see, I haven’t skied since I was about ten… And that has pretty much been on purpose. My last memories of skiing involve a lot of hatred and darkness. I’m hoping that turns around on this trip.

I’m pretty sure this picture is from my last attempt at skiing. My gangster bro is on the left, mom in the middle, and that’s me sitting in the snow. We loved the 90s. All joking aside, I am very excited to head up to Jackson Hole! Life with Bryan means trying new things (or in this case, trying things I don’t want to try again) and constant adventure, even in our day to day life. I will update y’all when we get back because I am sure we will have some great stories and hopefully some good pictures too.

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Enjoy, y’all!

Rachel

P.S. 432 days until I’m a Mrs.!

Growing a Healthy Relationship

Whew! These past couple of weeks have been crazy. That is why I was so excited to spend Valentine’s weekend in Dtown with B. Can I just say that I am so blessed to be marrying a man who didn’t cringe when I suggested spending the weekend at a marriage counseling seminar?! Oh goodness, he is a keeper! And that is exactly what we did this past weekend. My MOH attends SMU and forwarded me an e-mail from the office of the chaplain about this seminar a few weeks ago. I forwarded it on to Bryan saying something along the lines of “hint, hint!” He replied back that he went ahead and signed us up! I will say that we were hoping that it would be a little bit more challenging- we didn’t learn a whole lot of new information (that’s a good sign, right?!), but we did get a chance to have conversations that don’t really happen on a day to day basis.

The first thing we learned was the importance of affirmations. Not just shallow affirmations, really try to notice specific things that you can point out! The leaders suggested 5 affirmations for every 1 negative message. At first that sounded like a “duh” statement, but start to pay attention to this ratio in every relationship in your life. You might not be as great at this as you think!

We also listed 3 things that we think are going well and 3 things we want to work on in our relationship. Luckily, both of our lists lined up! It is good to check every once in a while and make sure you are on the same page.

And last, but not least: getting to know you questions! My favorite part because Bryan and I’s answers were hilarious, if I do say so myself.

Questions to answer about your partner:

1. My partner is most likely to laugh when _________________________.

2. What my partner enjoys doing most ________________________.

3. My partner’s two closest friends are _________________________.

4. My partner’s favorite meal is ___________________________.

5. My partner is most encouraged when ______________________.

6. If my partner could spend two weeks anywhere in the world they’d pick ______________.

7. My partner’s favorite musical group, individual artist, or composer is ________________.

8. My partner’s favorite song is ___________________________.

9. The two people in the world that my partner admires most are _____________________.

10. My partner’s favorite relative is ___________________.

11. My partner’s favorite romantic restaurant is ______________________. (Bryan said mine was CiCi’s- a man after my own heart)

12. My partner’s favorite flower is ____________________.

13. My partner feels most competent when ____________________.

14. One of my partner’s happiest childhood memories is ________________________________.

15. One of my partner’s happiest memories in our relationship is ________________________.

16. My partner would like me to pray most for __________________________.

Questions to ask your partner:

1. What was I wearing when we first met?

2. Where was I born?

3. What stresses am I facing right now?

4. When is my birthday? (Shockingly, Bryan is still working on this one.)

5. What is one of my greatest fears?

6. What is my favorite way to spend the evening?

7. What kind of present would I like best?

8. What is my favorite color?

9. Who is my greatest source of support (other than you)?

10. What do I most like to do with time off?

11. Do I have a secret ambition? What is it?

12. What are some important events coming up in my life? How do I feel about them?

13. What are some of my favorite ways to work out?

14. What is one of my favorite magazines?

15. What would I consider my ideal job?

16. What is my favorite holiday?

17. What kind of books do I most like to read?

18. What was my most embarrassing moment?

19. What foods do I hate?

20. What is my favorite animal?

So, that’s a pretty good list of questions – I would encourage spending time with your significant other this weekend and talking about some or all of the things on the list! It will be a fun way to remember why you like each other :)

Enjoy, y’all!

Rachel

P.S. 450 days until I am a Mrs.!

*These lists were adapted from information we received at the Growing Healthy Relationships Seminar. Information provided by Jay and Barb Barnes from Bethel University and the Center for Relationship Enrichment.