Learning To Love

Pictures from our trip to DC

2009-11-26T10:32:00.003-06:00

We had a great time on our vacation!!!

Bathroom is complete

2009-08-04T20:27:00.002-05:00

Here are just a couple quick pics of the bathroom. It is done! (It has been for a while but I haven't made time to put up the pictures)

Pictures for an Album

2009-07-16T09:47:00.005-05:00

In case you don't know yet... You can get a free hard cover photo album at CVS this week (you get the money you paid back in Extra Bucks - and you can do this up to 5 times from what I am hearing). I am going to make an album from our first year of marriage. Here are some of the pictures I am including.

For Mama

2009-07-07T16:05:00.002-05:00

Just thought you might like this picture. Love you!

I was tagged

2009-06-08T22:21:00.002-05:00

I am up to the challenge Jenny.... Here is a picture from the first folder and the tenth picture. This is a picture of me and Dean Hull (one of my favorite people at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA). In this picture we are on a mission trip in the Appalachian Mountains in Southeastern KY. We built a house for a family there and enjoyed the Harlan County life while we were there.

I can't say I don't have a green thumb much longer :)

2009-04-04T18:06:00.009-05:00

I never have been able to grow ANYTHING.... I have even killed an aloe vera plant. Maybe I just needed a yard to really flourish with my plant growing skills. Here are a few pictures of some things we have planted over the last several weeks. We have a small herb garden (basil, cilantro, and lemon balm), 3 tomato plants that we are going to grow in pots, beautiful petunias, a potted assortment, and some pretty lilies (they are a little past their prime). I also put a shot of the backyard in for those of you who have not seen our house.

We loved Arizona

2009-03-18T08:36:00.008-05:00

We recently went to visit Brian's brother, Brendon and his lovely wife, Jeannie ;) and AWESOME kids Braelyn and Brason in Arizona. I had never been to Arizona before and really enjoyed it. The terrain is so much different. They don't have grass in their yards, but they still call it a lawn even though it is just different size rocks and pebbles. We saw many different sites and enjoyed learning a little more about marriage from a couple who has been successful for many years.

My first post for a deal alert!

2009-03-08T21:57:00.002-05:00

Hello All, my cousin-in-law has a site that is AWESOME. She always is posting some money saving solution. Check it out at http://donnareedsyndrome.blogspot.com/ Here is my first announcement. Walgreens has Garnier Fructis shampoo on sale for .99 after the coupon in the Easy Saver catalog. In Sunday's paper (March 8) there is a $1 coupon for the same shampoo. So you get it for free.

Now, for those of you who read the blogs for the deals my post is not in the traditional format, but the information is still useful I hope.

Save Money!

Happy Birthday Gordon

2009-02-24T18:29:00.010-06:00

Brian and I went out with our good friends Wendi and Gordon over the weekend. It was his birthday. This was especially exciting for me because Brian and I are not spending any extra money until we can decide what our spending habits are and until we start to make a little more money. I mean seriously... I cannot buy a bag of M&Ms without prior approval. It was a real treat to go out to eat and then bowling and putt-putt golfing. Wow!

We bet against the Johnson's and lost. We should learn not to bet against them...we keep losing. We lost to them at putt-putt and bowling so now we have to drive to their house (about 40 minutes away), cook them dinner and dessert, and clean up the mess. Oh... one day we will beat them again.

The reason we started betting with them was because shortly after our wedding we went to a wedding shower for them (they were married a little over a month after we were). We played Spades with them and won (BIG TIME). We owed it to the fact that we were married and thus had superior communication skills to this couple who was only engaged (now remember that at this point Brian and I had been married about a month or so)... we wanted them to know that we had a lot that they could learn from because we had so much more experience than they did. Ha, ha, ha... we are so funny.

Oh well, enjoy the pictures!

I found the camera battery!!!!

2009-02-21T12:59:00.008-06:00

The camera battery was plugged into an outlet that we hardly ever use. I think I did that thinking that it would be out of the way, but of course I forgot it was there.

Now, I was able to post the pictures of the bathroom. We (and by we I mean Brian) are almost done. The walls still need to be painted, plumbing to the sink needs to be completed, and the fixtures need to be hung. I try to help as much as I can, but most of the work is a little over my head and the space is a little small for both of us. Enjoy the pictures.

Pictures from the Honeymoon

2009-02-20T19:38:00.013-06:00

I just uploaded some photos to Facebook so I thought I would put a few here too. These are from the honeymoon, but I know some of you would like to see them.

Isn't he cute

2009-02-20T14:47:00.001-06:00

I was just looking at the picture at the top of my blog... all I could think was "isn't he cute" *****My husband is so cute!

Pictures for the Blog

2009-02-17T19:09:00.002-06:00

So, I told my mother-in-law that I would put pictures on the blog over the weekend of the bathroom project, but... I CANNOT find the battery to my camera. I plugged it in somewhere in the house about 2 weeks ago and now I CANNOT find it. Seriously, how do you lose this? I will keep looking at get them up ASAP. The bathroom looks great though! Euletta's son (my husband) is a real artist. We got the faucet and towel bars in the mail yesterday.

Look at these lips

2009-01-27T18:46:00.001-06:00

This post won't be up here long and is only for my cousin's benefit. This is how my lips were done for my wedding. Of course, when I got to the chapel I wiped it off.

I was in a PhD level course

2009-01-20T18:06:00.003-06:00

Tonight I had my first course of the semester. It is an internet course so I was in the office at home getting ready for the virtual chat. Brian wanted to come in and see my 'classroom.' He sat down at the desk and started typing in my chat session... I assumed he was playing around and going to write my wife is hot or something along those lines. I was partially correct. He wrote "Amy Holt in da house" and then pushed enter. This was then posted to the chat session. It was the funniest thing ever, but HELLO you can't post this on a PhD class forum.

Trip to Turkey- May 2008

2009-01-13T14:59:00.009-06:00

So this post is from quite a while ago, but I did not have a blog then and I wanted to put up some pictures of when we went to Turkey. I was fortunate enough to be the research assistant for this study abroad trip in May 2008... so I got to go for free. Brian was able to come too! We were there for about 14 days and saw some really neat sights. We heard the Muslim call to prayer... it was very unnerving at first, but you got used to it really quickly. We would both love to go back sometime.

We both really loved Capadoccia (the picture with the huge mounds). We got to stay in a hotel where the rooms were inside the mounds. It was beautiful and unlike anything we had ever seen before.

I had to have my head covered during parts of the trip. Any time we went in a mosque it was not required, but would have been considered rude of me not to cover my head. I also found the covering useful when we were in the sun to protect against sunburn. Sunburn was not a problem when we were in the underground city. This is the picture of us that looks like we are in a cave. There was miles and miles of what used to be a big city underground. It was VERY crowded and we definately felt clausterphobic many times. At one point someone yelled behind us that we needed to move the line along because someone was having chest pains... there was no where for us to go. We were smooshed in already (touching everybody on all sides).

Another funny thing was when we were near Ephesus (we did go to Ephesus also... it was amazing to be where Paul was) we went to a heliacropolis (who knew that was a burial ground). We kept smelling something that smelled of rot. Brian thought he was getting swept away by the historical romanticism of the place until he picked up a very beautiful flower (pictured above) that truly smelt like death... it was horrible.

I have also uploaded was is thought to be the last home of the Virgin Mary before her death. Isn't it interesting that the Bible really doesn't give much/any detail about her after Jesus's death.

The puppies

2009-01-02T19:57:00.004-06:00

I realized while talking to my cousin this evening that I don't have a picture of our puppy dogs on the blog. Sandy is the brownish/black dog. She is 10. She does everything that she is told by command. She is in love with Brian and always watches him. Seriously, the dog is in love with Brian and is sad that she is not a human so that she could be married to him and spend her whole day making him happy. Queen is the silver/gray puppy. She is 9 years old. She is in love with squirrels. She loves everybody though and loves to be petted. It is nice though because she is not in your face about it. If you don't want to pet her she just goes on her way.

Our new kitchen table

2009-01-02T19:54:00.002-06:00

Here is a pic of our new table. We had a table that Brian was going to refinish, but amid all the home improvement projects I thought it might be easier to get a new one so all the efforts can go to finishing the bathroom. We actually bought it on Craig's list so it was a great deal. I also wanted something that would be ours instead of what Brian had before we got married. You can also see the plates that we got from Turkey on the wall behind the table.

Our First New Year's Eve together

2009-01-01T14:57:00.004-06:00

The bathroom project

2008-12-26T17:03:00.006-06:00

Putting up the backerboard and tile

Christmas at the new Holt Home

2008-12-26T16:58:00.005-06:00

Here are just a couple pics of our first Christmas morning together. We were in our home for Christmas morning then traveled to Lubbock and Amarillo.

Let me clarify

2008-11-24T10:46:00.002-06:00

My husband thought perhaps I should clarify my last update.... I don't actually go up to someone's home and look in their windows. I look in their window from the car out on the street. My face is not smooshed up against their windows. I am several feet away... safely on the street.

Anyway, hope everyone (actually only Jenny... she is the only one that reads this) is getting ready for Thanksgiving. I am excited to go to Arkansas. My sweet husband and I are going to BEAT the heck out of the Wallace's!!!

Married for 3 months

2008-11-20T11:38:00.004-06:00

I want to get better at this blog thing because it is so neat to look back and read what other people have done over the past several months... I want to be able to do that too.

Here is an attempt... One of my favorite things to do is drive around at night (this is going to sound weird) and look in people's windows. I told you it would sound weird, but the people have their windows open so I'm not doing anything wrong. I like to look at how their house is decorated, see if they are watching TV, etc. I just think it is so interesting that we are all in our homes at night and doing normal things. We feel so isolated in our homes, but right next door (just a few feet away) another family is doing what they normally do at night.

Anyway, after our study with other first-year married couples, Brian took the long way back to our house so we could look in people's windows. He didn't say anything about it; he just did it. It was really nice of him and I had a good time... lot's of people had their windows open!

Married for 3 months now...

2008-11-20T11:27:00.006-06:00

Here are some pics

2008-11-20T11:08:00.004-06:00

We've been married a month

2008-09-13T10:45:00.002-05:00

My cousin/sister puts me to shame as to how often she keeps up with her blog. I can't blame it on being busy, just being married, being a PhD student, moving.... becuase she has 3 little ones... she's busy too.

Brian and I have been married just over a month. The first week being back from the honeymoon was difficult but we are loving married life and trying to be intentional about making it positive. We met with our pre-marital counselors Thursday night and will continue to learn from their wisdom for the next several months.

Brian made me a very sweet dinner for our one month anniversary. It was a good memory.

I love my future husband

2008-07-23T21:41:00.004-05:00

Brian is bit of a loner... that makes loving him hard sometimes. I can be a little insecure because of this. Most of the time all it takes to make me feel better is a little time together to reconnect. Today Brian came and sat beside me while I was getting ready to go to class. For no particular reason he just spent a few minutes with me talking with me and being sweet to me. It was really nice!

Regardless of what my future husband does... God is faithful... I will dwell on His faithfulness.

18 days left

2008-07-22T17:19:00.002-05:00

18 days until our wedding. I am so ready for the day to be here so I don't have to do anymore planning. I worked on the music, the budget, and the reception today. Yesterday we got our marriage license... every time something gets done it feels so good to be able to check one more thing off the list. Of course, renovating the house will be a never-ending project. It will all be memories that I will cherish.

Jenny made me do it

2008-07-19T12:43:00.001-05:00

Well, my cousin (AKA sister) has been on me to start a blog. BTW - she is also the one that got me on mySpace. I will have to update my profile soon, but between planning a wedding, moving again, and trying to pass my Stats class I don't have much time. I am glad that she got me on here though... I think it will be fun. Thanks Jenny! Love you!