Our second Christmas

Christmas number two has come and gone for the Gaizat's and I must say this one was much less stressful than the last. It makes sense,though, I mean, last year was the first time we had to figure out the whole family circuit and we were sort of just flying by the seat of our pants but we had more of a plan this year so we could just enjoy the season and look foreward to the plans we had made. I hope everybody else had a great Christmas, too.

Recent Goings-on

We've been up to about a million things lately but I'll just recount a few! my little brother, McLean, turned 21 on the 21st. I think I was more excited about the fact that it was his golden birthday than he was; I gave him a set of sake' cups since he's really in to the Japanese culture. We actually got to see both our families for Thanksgiving. His family lives in town so we got to spend some time with them in the morning and then we headed down to Illinois and spent The rest of the day and Friday with them. We brought our Wii and so Chris became wildly popular with my four-year-old cousin. I helped my mom put the Christmas tree up on friday. That was fun, especially since we don't have on yet and probably won't until we get a house. I am excited though because I have come up with a solution to our no tree problem. My mom bought me this really pretty amber colored hurricane vase( it's actually more champeign colore but it's called"amber luster) and I bought some pretty ball ornaments to put inside. I also got some Christmas lights to put in the vase with the ornaments and once I have all that arranged I've got a sparkly silver star to set on top. My romantic Christmas fantasy is that Chris and I can come home from work and we will turn the lights off, plug in our "Christmas vase" and sit on the couch together, drinking hot chocolate and watching the beautiful lights. Hmm, I think I've already watched too many Christmas movies this season!

Maiden Voyage

This weekend was my friend's bridal shower and, as a bridesmaid, I just had to be there. Obviously such a weekend just screams of large doses of estrogen; hence the reason Chris did not want to come( and i totally don't blame him)! This ,of course, means I was on my own. Yep, I made the trek to my home town on my own for the first time ever! The trip there was completely without incident. The way back was nearly without incident except that I missed my exit coming in to Indianapolis and had to turn around and try to find my way back. Yeah, I was really freaking out because it was almost 1:00 am, my eyes were kind of blurry so I had trouble reading signs and I didn't really recognize the area. I was frantically calling Chris but he was asleep and didn't hear his phone. Thankfully, as I was trying to get Chris on the phone my mom beeped in and she was able to get a map and help me find my way. The weekend with family and friends was great and although the trip back was a bit traumatic I am sure that I will come to see it as a positive, confidence building experience!

weekend recap and weekday mishap

This past weekend was so much fun! Chris and i drove down to my parent's house Friday night and then Saturday morning my mom and I went on this bus trip to Chicago. Wow, we had so much fun together but we were so ready to go home like two hours before we were supposed to meet back at the buses. We walked all over the place from about 9:30 to 7:00. I'd say the highlight of the day was when we took a carriage ride down by the lake. We were so tired and there was absolutely nowhere to sit down so we said, what the heck, let's take a carriage ride! As we were riding we saw a wedding party just coming out of the reception and the bride came out in her lovely dress and my mom said,"you've been married longer than her!" Yeah, i was like, how weird is that! It really just blows my mind sometimes to think that I'm really not a kid anymore, that there are people out there who are more newly married than I, and that the number of people who are younger than i am is growing day by day. Weird.

OK, on to the mishap portion of this blog entry. We have almost nothing to eat in the house so yesterday I decided I would go to the store on my way home from work. Well, i went all through the store with my mentle list, picked out what we needed, got in line, loaded the stuff on the belt, pulled out the little case I keep money and stuff in and discovered that i did not have my debit card. D'oh! I felt like the queen of the village idiots; I just couldn't believe I had done that!

Face Painting

A woman in our church is starting a center/support group for survivors of domestic violence and she put on a rally today. Well, this is like the first weekend in like two months that we have been home so when she and her husband asked if we could help out we were like "oddly enough, we have nothing planned. Sure, we'll help!" Chris, being the technical genius that he is, was working on set-up and all that other stuff involving wires and the like. I was outside with the kids doing face painting, which was loads of fun! I have done it a couple times before but this time was the most fun because absolutely no one asked for Piccachu or any other Pokemon character!

A Variety of Things

Today was a special day. Nothing amazing happened, it was just different than most days. I don't have to be at work until 10 but our apartment complex was having the parking lots re-striped and wanted everyone to move their cars by 8. Well, since I wasn't sure where to move my car to I decided to just get up and go. I had a couple gift cards for Starbucks so I went and got some chai and sat outside and read my Bible for a while( that turned out to be not such a good idea because it was really cold and windy today)! It was funny because I was trying to decide what to get and the ladies were joking with me like, hurry up, lady, we got people lined up out the door! Haha, i was the only person in line and like the third customer in the whole place! after that I went to Target, which is becoming my favorite store, and found the perfect blue hoodie to wear to work that I have been searching for for a while. Like I said, nothing amazing but I feel like I got more out of my day. sometimes I feel like I have no time to do anything but work and come home for a couple hours and go to sleep. I got a chance to do majore cleaning last weekend and was amazed at how behind I had gotten in that area. Haha, and then I saw my eyebrows...AHH! Guess I've gotten behind in that area, too. Well, to end a great day, my honey took me out for chinese food, which I have been craving for a long time, and we went grocery shopping, so now we have food. Sweet!

P.S. Happy B-day

I also want to say happy birthday to my aunt, Lea, even though she won't read this. she is the youngest of my grandparent's eleven children and she is 40 today-woohoo! She won't mind my saying her age, she proudly admits it. Beside, she totally doesn't look it and she has a two-year-old daughter so she doesn't act it, either.

Road Trip!

I am so excited! I took tomorrow( Friday) off, so i will be cleaning and packing, and then around noon my husband and I are leaving, with two other couples, on an exciting road trip to South Carolina. One of my husband's childhood friends lives up there so we are going to visit him and his wife. Also, there is this simulation machine of a video game my husband and his brother like to play so we're going to try that out. This started as an idea that my husband, his twin brother and a friend of their's thought would be fun and somehow the wives got involved so we will all have fun together! I love road trips so I'll be happy no matter what we do!

Cemetery Walk

This past weekend I went to Normal( my hometown) for the Evergreen Cemetery's " Voices of the Past" cemetery walk, wich is an annual mother-daughter event for my mom and I. I know it sounds a little creepy, but it's really fun and it's something I've been looking foreward to all year. I'm totally in to history and this is like history come alive. The "Voices of the Past" players and the McLean County Historical Society come together and do research on early members of the town who are buried in the cemetery and then the actors dress up in period atire, stand next to or near that person's grave, and gives a perfomans as if they were that person. This year was pretty cool because all the people being portray had something to do with the local college, Illinois State University, because this year is its 150th anniversary. The day wasn't entirely spent lurking in a graveyard, though, we also shopped 'till we dropped! We went to the library's book sale and I got four books for $1.70! I also got some cute Autumn and Holloween stuff for our apartment. It was so much fun to be home and hang out with my family and do special stuff with my mom. It was fun but hard becuase we hadn't seen my family in a while and the visit just wasn't long enough. Back in Indy and getting ready for work this morning I felt so homesick, more than I have for a long time, or maybe ever, since we got married. *sigh*

The light at the end of the tunnle

I am so very happy that the weekend is coming around again. Things have been a little crazy at work. First a little background: I work in what is known as the older infant room and, being that the ratio is four infants to one teacher and we have anywhere from five to eight babies in our room on any given day, there are two teachers in the room-me and another woman who was the head teacher. Well, for a while now my co-worker has been talking about either quiting or cutting down to three days a week. Haha, guess what. last Friday she left on her lunch break and never came back or even answered her phone. They called her emergency contact person and ,thankfully, she's ok, but she's not coming back. So, it's been just me in the room with four infants and all I can say is, I really hope I don't have quadruplets!

Embarking on our second year

Last Sunday was our first wedding anniversary so year two has officially begun! Some things I have learned in our first year are:

1. When he does something that I think is wierd or irritating; instead of getting mad, I should just think about what he just did and see what I can learn from him. After all, as my partner in marriage, my weaknesses are often his strengths and visa-versa.
2. Specific to our marriage, I have learned that my husband just wants me to listen when he tells me about a problem he is having. At first, I would try to calm his fears or share a similar experiance that I had in an effort to help him feel he was not alone but that just made him feel I wasn't really listening, so now I just listen and maybe ask there's anything I can do to help.

On a more superficial yet very exciting note, we begin our second year with pictures! My parents came for our anniversary weekend and gave us our wedding album as our gift. It is so amazing! It's got a mat-finish, black leather binding and the photographs are actually printed on the paper in a collage-type layout. For those of you who don't know, my dad is a professional photographer and he took all our wedding pictures( well, except for the ones he was in, of course) and designed our album, which is why it is such an amazing and meaningful gift.

Life is crazy...and wonderful

Wow, life has been a constant state of change lately! It all started when Chris got a full-time job and, as a result, could no longer take me to work. So last week I walked to work for three days. The walk took me about an hour and the temperatures were in the 90's but I actually enjoyed it because it gave me a lot of time to think and pray before work, not to mention the great exercize! Well, my bosses were worried about me walking alone in the heat so they changed my schedual from 10-6 to 7-5 so that Chris could take me since he doesn't go in 'till 8. The problem with that was that I couldn't leave 'till 6 anyway so I ended up being at work for 11 hours with 2 hour breaks( that part was nice)! Um, yeah, so that routine wasn't really working for us so last Saterday we bought a second car. That's right, I have a car! It's a white '93 Honda Civic, we bought it for $1,400 and it only takes about $20 to fill it up. How sweet is that? Now I'm back to my old schedual and we are just trying to adjust. oh, also, we were asked to join our church's teen ministry, which is exciting but also a little stressfull. My parents are coming to visit this weekend and I am so excited, I really miss them. However, the absolute most wonderful thing that I am looking forward to is our one year anniversary!!! This sunday, August 19th, is our first wedding anniversay. We check into our suite at Sybaris around 6 and we both got Monday off so we can spend extra time together and have a relaxing and romantic couple of days. It just seems unreal to me that we have been married a year already!

It's my birthday!

Today is my 22nd birthday! It's been a fun day. After work I got dressed-up and went to this cute restaraunt for " half-price martini Thursday." My friend, Shari, says that 22 is the new 21 and I think she's right because I didn't have any achohol on my 21st birthday but I did this year(it took me like two hours to drink my one martini, though, so I wouldn't say I went crazy)! My husband gave me a really nice card and a Sybaris Send-a-hint saying wouldn't it be nice to go there for our anniversary.

Job news!

Great news, my husband has a full-time job in his field! He has been working at FedEx for ten years and has been the computer tech guy for a realty firm for about a year but both of those jobs are part- time and, since he graduated from college in March, he has been looking for a full-time position in the field of computer networking and security. Well, he gave his resume' to one of his old instructors who had gotten him a lead once before and then Keller Williams( the realty place) cut his hours from ten hours a week to two hours a month. Yeah, bad news. So, we weren't so happy about that but we prayed about it and like the next day Chris got a call from a place call the Indiana Jet Center. They do something with jets and planes, I'm not sure if they build them or repair them or what, but they were in need of a computer technician and they asked him to come for an interview. The really amazing part about this is that this offer had nothing to do with his instructor and Chris has no idea how this company got his resume'.

My funny mom

Haha, my mom is so funny. She always comes up with these crazy scenarios that obviously would never happen but are hilarious. Case-in-point, we went to visit my parents last weekend and I was looking for my wedding shoes( I keep all my wedding stuff at my parents house due to lack of space in our apartment) because I wanted to wear them with a certain dress. well, I looked all over and couldn't find them so I thought that I may have taken them home at some point and just didn't remember. So, once we got home, I looked all over but they were nowhere to be found and I had no idea where they could have gone. Well, of course I called my mom and told her that they had dissapeared and, here's the good part, she said," a transvestite probably snuck in and took them. Oh, I just found an empty box with a note that says ' I have the shoes-Transvestite'." I could not stop laughing. I was like," so, his name is actually'Transvestite'?" and she said," Well, he can't give his real name, it's embarrassing!" Oh, Mom! I love your crazy stories:) So, this is a heads-up to all you girls out there, beware The Transvestite, new archnemesis of all woman, who sneaks in and steals all your cute clothes!

alright, here it is

I mentioned before about some heavy thoughts that have been weighing on me and now I guess I'm just gonna spill it. My aunt and uncle, who have been married for 21 years, are getting a divorce. I know a lot of people get divorced, even some of my other relatives have, but this news just really blindesided me because I never thought that they would. The thing is, this actually made me realize that, even though I know better, I have this wierd notion that there is a deadline for divorce, like if you haven't gotten divorced by such-and-such a year, then you're safe. Now, in the end, this is just me being silly because this is so strange and unexpected. I am totally secure in my marriage, I think I'm just "trippin' " because I love my aunt and uncle and it is sad anytime a marriage ends, especially one that has lasted so long.

I'm still here

Haha, hey everyone! Man, I've been really bad about blogging lately but I've just felt really busy and I've had some things on my mind that have just been really overwhelming for me,lately. I'm sure I will write and let everyone in on all that, eventually, I just have to let the flurry of thoughts settle first. Plus, I have been going to bed much earlier( man, what a nerd) but I think I need to stop that or at least modefy it because I am a night owl and I need that late night time to do whatever so I don't start to feel like my job monopolizes all of my time. Alrighty, I'll get to the good or whatever stuff later. Hope everyone's having a great week!

In sickness and in health

I have had a terrible summer cold plus a fever since Friday....yuck! Well, this isn't the first time I've been sick since we got married but I think it feels worse because I am working now and cannot really rest like I would like. So, here I am, feelin' crappy and, truth be told, really starting to miss my mom when my honey swoops in and makes everything better. Here's what happened: we got into bed and I was feeling physically gross and emotionally vulnerable and alone and then I felt Chris snuggle up behind me and put his arm around me and suddenly I felt completely better( at least, emotionally). This was a really special act that really let me know that was there for me because he does not like to cuddle when we're going to sleep because he can't sleep unless he can move freely but, for me, physical touch is one of the primary ways that I communicate love so what he did really meant a lot to me. He is so wonderful and I love him soooo much! I am really enjoying learning things like that about each other this first year.

Camping!

I am so excited! Chris and I are leaving tomorrow afternoon to meet another couple that goes to church with us and the four of us are going to go camping together up at the Brown County State Park. I am really looking forward to it because it is sort of like a rite of passage. You see, Sunday is our church's third annual Brown county service and a lot of people, especially young married couples, will go up and camp the night before. Well, last year we did go to the service together because I was in town for his birthday but this time last year we were about two months awayfrom our wedding so, of course, we didn't camp, but now we can! We have a tent and Chris went out and got some other pieces of camping paraphanalia we might need so I think we're all set for a great time!

I hope everybody has a great weekend!

Such a great weekend!

Man, I had so much fun on the weekend! I was back in my hometown for this mother/daughter High Tea at this fancy little tea room. I went with my mom( of course) and my sister-in-law, sandra( my little brother's wife), it was lovely! After that my mom and I went to some garage sales ( I love garage saling with my mom). Then we met my friend( the one that just got engaged) and her mom at a bridal shop and I tried on some bride's maid dresses . To top off the evening , my brother and SIL, some of my best friends and I all went to the drive-in to see Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. It was great to spend time with everyone!

Long time, no post!

Wow! So it's been a while since I wrote anything. I used to be such a night owl but since I got the job I have acctually been going to bed BEFORE midnight. Crazy, I know. Well, work has been pretty good so far. The kids are really cute. I work in thw Infant 2 class which is 6 to 12 month olds but I love to break the Infant 1 people for lunch 'cause then I get to hold the little newborns. I love it! Um, what else? Oh, Memorial day weekend Chris and I drove to Normal, Il.( my hometown). One of my best friends got engaged on Sunday so we went down to celebrate with them. Haha, the thing is, we got there on Saturday and she and the other " girls", most of whom were in my wedding, wanted to hang out. Well, obviously she didn't know she was getting engaged on Sunday but she knew it was going to happen soon so she kept talking about it and wondering aloud when it would happen and the rest of us were just going crazy trying to keep it a secret from her! Needless to say, she was so happy on Sunday( and so were we). He surprised her with roses and took her out to the lake, then he told her to close her eyes and tied three strings around her ring-finger while quoting the verse about a cord of three strands. He then told her to open eyes and he slid the rign down the braided cords and onto her finger.

Yay!

I got a job! You may remember that I was interviewing with a daycare a while back. Well, they finally contacted all of my references, they went through and I start on Monday! I will be working in the infant room, which I am really excited about. We'll see how that goes. I hope it will give me my baby fix for now and help me be more patient about wanting my own but, like I said, we'll see.

Time flies

Haha, I was just randomly looking at the calender today and realized that it is the two year anniversary of the day we started dating. I was totally blown away because I just couldn't believe that it has been TWO years! Well, we'll be married for 9 months on the 19th but I can't believe that either. Man, it feels like our first year has just been flying by and we are having a great time. Married life has definitely been an adjustment for both of us( maybe a little more for me since I went from living at home with my parents to living three hours away from them and making a home together with my husband) but it has been great. I love my husband sooo much, I love being his wife, I love saying those words, and I thank God every chance I get for bringing this wonderful man into my life.

Mid-week update

so, here is the tale of how all my worries were for naught.About 45 miutes before church my sister-in-law, Crystal, called and said that she was dropping her husband( my husband's twin) off at our place because the guys were gonna hang-out and asked if I wanted to ride together. So, I didn't have to go alone and acctually crystal wasn't quite sure how to get there and I was able to direct her. Some how, even though I wasn't driving, knowing that I could explain how to get somewhere gave me confidence. I think tomorrow will be my post on tonight's message and the things I read today in trying to combat my anxiety. I feel like I have learned so many great things today, I mean, I felt like I was haveing these " wow" lightbulb moments all day and I need some time to think about everything and really let it all sink in.

Women's Mid-week

Tomorrow is going to be a women's mid-week service at church and I am both excited and a little nervouse. I am nervouse because I will most likely be driving there alone and driving in this city always makes me a little nervouse. I mean, I know how to get there but still I'm worried. I know I'm going to need to do a lot of praying about that and just really give my anxiouse thoughts and feelings up to god because, really, I know that there is no real reason for me to be anxiouse but I get so caught up in my far-fetched horror scenarios about what could happen that I lose sight of the truth, which is, God is in controll. Ok,well, besides that, I am acctually really excited to worship with all my sisters. I always loved women's services back home. I don't know exactly what but there is definitely something special that happens when women come together to worship God. Plus, I think it will be a really good oppertunity for me to get more out of myself and form friendships because,I must admit, I have been leaning on Chris too much and that is something I need to change.

Go Spidey!

Chris and I went to a midnight showing of spiderman 3 with his twin brother and his wife last night. It was so much fun, we loved the movie! It was like 3 O'clock when the movie let out and Chris had to be at work at five so that was kinda crazy but fun none the less.

Oh, and thanks to PlatinumRose, I finally learned how to get some sort of picture up. This is a collage of our engagement pictures taken by my dad who is a wedding photagrapher.

Good news &Bad news

Today was just something else, let me tell ya. The good news is, the daycare I interviewed at before, but did not get hired at because I couldn't work the shift they were hiring for, called me today and said that enrollment had increased and they were looking to hire someone to work in the infant room from 11-6 and wanted to know if i was still interested. I told them I definately was and they said they would get right on my reference checks and probably have news by next week. I really hope I get this job because I think it would be the perfect job for me! Also, Chris has an interview for a full-time, really well paying job in his feild, which is really exciting and my parents are coming for the weekend and my mom and I are going shopping! I can't wait, it's gonna be great!
The bad news is that on our way to mid-week service this evening smoke started billowing out of the tail-pipe and hood of our car ( that's right, the car that was just in the shop like three days ago) so we pulled over and opened the hood and there was anti-freeze everywhere! At that point we decided there was now way we would make it to Church so we turned around and tried to get back home but we kept having to pull over because the car was over- heating. Since we couldn't go more than several yards at a time Chris called a toe truck and his grandpa came and pick us up and is letting us barrow his van so Chris can go to work and to his job interview. My poor guy, he's so frustrated with this car thing! It's gonna be ok, though, things will look better in the morning.

Stab 'N' Gab

Oh my goodness, I had so much fun tonight! My SIL, Crystal( she's married to my husband's identical twin ) came up with this group called Stab 'N' Gab where women get together and " gab" while knitting, crocheting, cross stiching and the like. Tonght was the first time I attended and it was so much fun! I worked on a cross stitch project that I have been trying to finish for about seven years now and um, yeah, really didn't make much progress. Oh well, that's ok, the gabbing part went really well! I love hanging out with The Girls and I have really haven't done that since moving to Indy, so I'm glad to be making friends.

craziness

Wow, this past weekend has just been crazy and the craziness does not seem to be ending. I'm not complaning, though, because it is not all bad it's just crazy. Ok, here's the scoop; the craziness began on friday morning when Chris got home from work. Haha, he had the funniest and cutest look on his face and he looked like a little boy trying to hide the frog in his pocket from his mother. Well, as it turns out that's pretty much what was going on, except it wasn't a frog, it was a Nintendo Wii. While he was at work he saw in a newspaper that a local electronics store was having a sale on them so he went right over and got one. Well, he was like," honey, I went and picked this up but if you don't think we should keep it I'll take it back." Well, we just got our tax return and he's getting a tuition reimbursment so we kept it and, man is it fun!
Alright, the second bit of craziness began around 4 a.m ,Sunday morning when we were awakened by sirens. We had no idea where they were going and, despite how loud they were, thought they were just passing by. Um, not! When we got back from Church there was a note from our apartment management saying that there had been a fire in the complex. We then went in search of the damage and found a roofless, windowless, boarded-up, charred shell of a building. Later on the news it was reported that at least eight apartments were destroyed, thankfully, no one was injured.
The last thing is that we took our car into the shop today and will now be paying $8oo to get it fixed. It is reall worth it, though, because it is a great car. All this has reminded me how God takes care of us and I'm really greatful. Life can be craziness but God is good and I love every minute( even if some of those miutes take a little time to be truly appreciated)!

deep thoughts by Bram Stoker

I am currently reading Bram Stoker's " Dracula" and have found it to be, in my opinion, the most wonderful book of it's era that I have read thus far. Much of the book is made up of the journal/ diary entries of it's various characters and here is where the "deep thoughts" come in. One of the main characters, Mina Harker, is writing of the benefits of keeping a journal and confides to herself: "I am anxious, and it sooths me to express myself here; it is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time." Ah, so profound! When I read this I had one of those "lightbulb" moments and I think I even got a little misty because I think that this is such a beautiful sentiment. I am very much in agreement with this sentiment,as well, and that is really how I feel about this blog. I am a fairly quiet person but my mind is always running and I really do make myself anxious with all my thoughts. Because of this, I really need some sort of outlet and, besides prayer, I have found that writing my thoughts down and sorting them out is the best way to sooth my anxious thoughts, discover what I am really feeling and/or what is really troubling me and then decide what I need to do, if anything.

Late night contemplations

This is the first post in my new blog and I am wondering what this will be. I'm not a very computer savvy person ( which is ironic,since my husband is a computer technician) but I hope to learn and make this blog into something worth following. I feel like this is sort of like an online diary and I was never very good at sticking with a diary but I hope to amend my ways on this account as well !