September??!! oh my!

oh wow... it's September already! As usual, at the end of another summer, I find myself asking 'where did the summer go?!'

But, I really can't complain... it's been a pretty amazing summer! Spent a month in the States with my love- met some pretty great people and learned a whole lot while I was there, got married!! (and got to spend time with my Grammie, Uncle Dave from Michigan, Nadine, Ang, and Bobby's family), went on a wonderful honeymoon, moved into and got settled in an apartment with my husband, spent a night at the cabin Mom and Dad rented for a weekend and played many rounds of games with my whole family there, and then visited Lissa and Brad in their new home in Regina. Not only did we have a great time with them, but we got to see a whole lot of good friends in the Moose Jaw/Caronport area and had a blast catching up with everyone! None of them had ever met Bobby before so that was neat!

We've done a lot of fun things here in Winnipeg too, like taking a River Boat tour, multiple rounds of free mini golf at the Golf Dome, picnics at the Forks (revisiting our engagement spot!), a trip to the zoo, and many game nights with Mom and Dad. An amazing summer indeed!

Soon, life will change pretty drastically for me... I start school (Providence Bible College) on Wednesday! I know it sounds dramatic when I say drastically, but it really will be a big change for me. I haven't really had a 'work' routine since I came home from Japan... planning a wedding, missionary training, getting married and settled into an apartment have kept me busy, but I've sort of been on my own schedule with waking up and going to bed and taking naps as I please! I've been so spoiled!

I am looking forward to the change... making new friends, learning a whole lot and growing in my walk with God, and hopefully gaining a little more discipline in my life, but I must confess I'm a little nervous about all that too... I'm not very outgoing and I strongly dislike being in new social settings not knowing anyone, and I've also been out of school for a while now... haven't done anything 'academic' since my TESL course in spring 2008. But, God is good and He will take care of me and carry me through this new experience...

He's certainly blessed me with an incredible husband. So patient. So loving. So helpful. Wonderful. I'm so thankful for him and his desire to make me so happy is humbling.

We are both really enjoying married life and we're so grateful for all the time off we've had this summer to adjust to our new life together. God has certainly blessed us. Even though it can be difficult, I really appreciate how marriage really helps to shape you into more of a Christlike image. I've found it tough that when the 'ugly stuff' in me comes out, I actually have to deal with it if I want to be a good wife and please the Lord. I guess all my life whenever I've seen that stuff in myself, I just chose to ignore it because it didn't really affect anyone but myself (or so I thought). But... now it's totally different. In a good way though. Like I said, it's causing me to grow and be more like Christ. Growth is never easy... but boy, it feels good when you look back and see how far you've come. I'm just thankful that I have such a patient husband to help me through this process. I can't say it enough how humbled I am by his love!

I guess I should get going... I will leave you with just a couple teaser pictures from our professional pictures that Eric Dreger took for us :) We LOVE them... but you'll have to come visit us in Otterburne if you want to see all of them!

no, we don't know these people... we were walking through the Exchange District :)

Finished off the photo shoot by visiting our favorite date spot :) Makes my heart happy that we did this!

And there's SOOO many other good ones... but I have to give you some motivation to come for a visit!! ;)