Good Times

I need to study, but I really want to blog before Thanksgiving because I am sure I will have a lot to say, but I have things to talk about NOW that I don't want to get lost!

Okay, first of all... I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS! I love that Thanksgiving is this week and that Christmas is right around the corner. I love the decorations going up and the Christmas and black Friday commercials on TV. Thanksgiving food and company are my favorite. I never let myself listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving... oh but Friday is coming fast! I am so, so excited about doing these holidays married to my best friend for the first time. And of course, I cannot wait to celebrate the Lord's birth with family and friends.

Now, I have to tell you about a few weeks ago. So a few weeks ago, there was a Tech football game that Tom and I went to. We have a friend on the team that we know from RUF, soooo Tom and some other guys painted up for him! It was tons-o-fun. Here are some picks...

I have more to tell but have to go... the rest will have to wait until after THANKSGIVING!!!

Thank the Lord that I am not in control...
I am one of those people who has been convinced that most of her worth is in her grades. However, this semester, by God's grace, I am learning the hard way that this is not true. School is hard this semester. I am way below average in a class, which is a completely new experience for me. My first reaction was to panic and to think my transcript and chances of getting a future job were ruined. But then, I realized I wasn't trusting the One who gave me the ability to as well as I have in the past and who is deciding my future and decides my present. God knows just how well I need to do in school in order to do what He has in mind for me in the future, so I have nothing to worry about.

For my Birthday...
A week and a half ago, I turned 22. Whew hew! I love birthdays. The week before I had the honor of spending some time with my good friends Ellie and Audrey. They drove down here from Chattanooga and brought with them a presents from my family and a cake that my mother made for me. So, we had a little celebration with them. The day of my actual brithday, Tom gave me some beautiful flowers, but we had a bridal shower to go to in the evening. A couple days later though, we slept in, Tom made pancakes, I went for a run while Tom went to the store, and then we made Chicken Parmagiana from scratch! Oh man oh man it was sooo good. We even peeled fresh tomatoes and made the tomato sauce. Here's what it looked like...

Okay, it may not look like much in this picture, but it tasted AMAZING.

Fun Stuff...
Lately Tom and I have been shopping on Shop4Freebies.com! It's so much fun and we are actually getting stuff in the mail! For free!!! We've gotten some cereal, granola bars, vitamins, instant coffee... and there's more to come. Check it out!

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,

Selah

that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations."

-Psalm 67: 1,2

Fall break Real quick

So, last weekend was fall break and Tom and I went BACKPACKING! I have been looking forward to this for a long time. Since before we were married.

We went with our good friends Philip and Erin (who got married the day after us). I don't have any pictures because the other couple had a lighter camera and we only took one.

So, highlights:

• Driving for over an hour on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere-alabama
• Getting lost in nowhere-alabama on the way home
• Loving the water from the river until we saw a dead deer lying in it the last day
• Good coffee in the morning thanks to Tom's backpacking coffee filter
• PERFECT weather
• Sleeping/squirming in one hammock both nights with my husband under the stars
• Good company on the trail
• Watching Philip poke at a water moccasin with a stick
  
• Watching a water moccasin strike at Philip's stick
  
• Watching Philip jump and scream as a pine cone almost hit him from above
• Eating way too much waffle house on the way home
  

Help!

I am calling out to all you bloggers out there who have cute blogs! How do you do it? Tips? Advice? Rules of thumb?

All I can do is find a website with layouts/templates and copy the html code. Do I need to learn html?

Please HELP!

My First Post as Mrs. Zylstra

Hello all, however many or few you may be. So far it's a relaxing Saturday morning. Tom and I are sitting on our couch, ahem love seat, checking out what's going on in the world. For Tom this involves espn and dvice. For me, it's checking facebook, friends' blogs, and cnn.

So far, marriage has been bliss. I absolutely love hanging out with my best friend all day long. We went on a cruise in the Caribbean for the honeymoon and it was amazing. The water was so blue, the food was delicious, and the entertainment was much fun.

Our ship...

Oh yes, a frog and chocolates. Our maid, Marson, made a different animal every day.



This is where we sat every night for dinner. I should have taken a picture of our view! We were looking straight out the back of the ship, at the sea. Beautiful. It was definitely the fanciest restaurant I have ever been to, but the price was included in our ticket cost!



Now I have to change gears and get ready for school. We start Monday! Though I'm dreading it, I know that my first job is now to be a godly wife, then a student. So, hopefully this semester won't be as stressful as in the past.

Within the noise and chaos

Tom and I had our second to last marriage counseling session yesterday, the invitations are out and rsvp's are flooding in, most of the details are decided we just have to finalize, gifts are starting to come and thank-you notes are heading out, Tom and I are packing all of our belongings, getting ready to move, today I have my final gown fitting. We are preparing to get married.

The next three weeks of my life are going to be a busy blur, then Tom and I will hop on a cruise and learn to relax again. Before we get to the cruise though, this week will be a scramble to get my room packed and the wedding plans mostly finished. Saturday, Tom, our parents and I will be moving things into our apartment. Sunday, my brother and I are getting baptized. Next week we will be preparing for family and finishing last minute wedding details. On Thursday of next week, family begins to come. The week before the wedding is packed with bachelorette party, family outings, bridesmaid luncheon, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I can't wait.

Within all the noise and commotion, Tom and I are preparing to BE married. We are praying and reading and learning about what it is to be a godly couple and wife and husband. We are trying to spend time alone with one another to discuss roles and expectations and to learn who the other person is and how they need to be loved.

Please pray for us. Pray that God would fill us with his Holy Spirit, would guide us and give us His wisdom. That He would use us for His glory and for reaching others and spreading the kingdom. Pray that the wedding itself would be a witness to our unbelieving friends and family. Pray that our marriage would be an example for years to come of Christ and the church.

So excited!

32 Days

I've been tired. Really really tired. I sleep 9 to 11 hours every single night. I try to run more days out of the week than I don't and when I do, it's been hard. Harder than running has ever been. I'm eating a balanced diet, getting exercise, getting rest, but trying to not sleep too much, just enough. I've been praying about it and have decided my body just needed it. Maybe it's healing, or maybe God's preparing me for my first semester as a student-wife.

This morning, after sleeping 9 hours, waking up was a little less painful than usual. Running was a bit easier, and so far I don't feel like I need a nap. Praise God.

Maggie is here and being cute. I'll take a picture.

If anyone's pondering upon the name of this post, there are 32 days until Tom and I begin a life together. Whew hew!

Praise God for he is good! My soul yearns to know Him and radically obey Him.

Make me know your ways O Lord
Lead me in your truth and teach me
for you are the God of my salvation
for you I wait all the day long
-Psalm 25: 4,5

Long time no see...

So, blogging isn't apparently my thing. I tend to forget. But let's see if we can get caught up.

This summer I've...

seen a best friend get married















Gone to Chicago












Attended numerous bridal showers (which I don't have a pic of, but here's a nice one of Tom and me)
















Gone to a couple bachelorette partays
















And in between it all, I've been planning planning planning. Which I couldn't do without my brother Stephen who designed the invitations and our website.
Check it out! Laura-and-Tom.com

Or without the help of Katie, one of my bridesmaids, who came all the way from Athens to help get stuff done. Whew hew! Katie was such a big help!


ALSO I have been babysitting. Not a baby, or a child, but a puppy! Meet Maggie:





I know, she's adorable. That pictures from a few weeks ago, and she's grown a lot. I'll try to get some more up in a bit.








Okay, that's all I have for now.

SummerTime!

It's 80 degrees outside and getting warmer. I am 5 days and 4 exams away from summer break. Fall may be my favorite season as far as the weather, but Summer is my favorite season as far as LIVING.

Why I love the summer.
1) SUNSHINE all day long!!!
2) Shorts, flip flops, and sunglasses
3) The smell of sunscreen... mmm
4) Beaches and bathing suits
5) Pools and crazy kids having a good time
6) Loooong days
7) More time for friends and fam
8) Hot days with a thunderstorm in the afternoon
9) Cookouts!

And this summer...
10) I'm getting married :o)

BABY BENNETT!!!

I have lots and lots of work to get done before tomorrow comes, but I am sitting at my desk unable to concentrate. Why? Because Laurie Ritzema's Baby Is HERE!!! Tim has been loading pictures of Bennett on facebook and he is adorable!

Praise God for new life!

Learning

The past couple of weeks have been full of lessons. I have learned that sometimes things are not as big of a deal as I think they are at first. If I just trust the Lord, this usually will become evident in due time. Tom and I are continuing to learn what marriage is and how it was created and designed by and for the Lord. We are learning how we will fit together as a married couple and also how we may not, but will have to learn to work together. And, we are also learning that there are many things we cannot prepare for and just have to trust the Lord with our future. I have also been learning lots of math. School has been hard and stressful and I have been studying a lot and cramming a lot into my head and staring at pages of notes until I understand them. However, the end of the semester is coming quickly.

Yesterday a couple of friends threw Tom and I a surprise wedding shower. It was a lot of fun. It was thrown by a couple who is getting married the day after Tom and I (Phillip and Erin), so our friends turned it around on them and got presents for both of us. It was humbling to see all these people take time to come and make us feel special. It made us realize the friends we have, even though we haven't known them for very long. The love in the body of Christ is so strong.

Catching Up

Last week was Spring break. When I take a break from school I usually take a break from e-mail and the internet. So, today I will try to catch up.

Highlights from the break (sorry I don't have pictures, I'll try to get better about that):

• I spent the entire first Saturday hangin out with my mom. We went shopping, talked about wedding plans, and watched a movie with my dad and brother. Very restful.
• Sunday, my family had the privilege to take a another family to our church for the first time. They moved to the U.S. from Zambia (I believe) just three weeks ago. Stephen has been helping our associate pastor with the family because they don't speak English but the parents are fluent in French (as is my brother). They have four children, 2 and a half, 5, 9, and 12. They need friends and prayer. It was a great experience and I loved hanging out with the children and getting to know them even through a language barrier.
  
• Saturday night I found out two of my best friends are ENGAGED! Carter and Megan, I love them. I've known Carter since we were two and Megan and I have been friends since we met at CVP in middle school. Tom and I had one of our first dates, sophomore year of high school with Carter and Megan. We went bowling.
  
• On Tuesday Tom and I met with both of our pastors to begin pre-marital counseling and to get the details of the wedding down. That evening our families got together at my house to eat. It was glorious. Since Tom and I were busy all day, my brother took it upon himself to cook. Starting the night before, Stephen made a marinade from scratch for steak, made a salad and homemade salad dressing, made three different kinds of sushi, pickled his own ginger, grilled the steak, and cooked corn and potatoes on an open fire. For dessert we had creme brulee, made from scratch and torched with a blow torch in front of us. A-Maz-Ing. I'm sure I'm missing a few things.
• The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful. I came down with a cold, Tom and I continued to work on wedding plans, we had more pre-marital counseling, and we both hung out with our families.
  

Three loves.

Reading others' blogs is probably one of my favorite things to do when I have some free time. I love listening to others' thoughts, others who live completely different lives than me or what I have ever known. I've never been much of a writer myself, but I figured I'd give it a try. It looks like fun.

I suppose it's appropriate for my first blog to be about myself. First of all, I have three loves. My heavenly Father, my fiance, and dogs. They are probably what give me the most joy in my every day life. My heavenly Father, Yahweh, Lord of all is the reason I live. He created joy and life and me. I yearn to please Him. My fiance, Tom, I have known since 4th grade. He amazes me with his patience and ability to forgive. I get so much joy watching him make people laugh. I am so thankful the Lord put him in my life. And dogs... are always happy. Some believe this makes them seem naive or stupid. Or that my love for them implies something about me, namely dependency. That I need the assurance of someone (or something) that will always love me no matter how many times I call them mean names. I don't really care. Dog's relieve my stress, make me laugh, and are something God has given me a passion for.

That's enough for now.