one.twenty-two. November 25, 2008

122 days until I marry this cute lil boy…

last night I got incredibly anxious for our wedding… I just can’t wait to walk down the aisle to this man and spend foooooooooorever hanging out, making pb&j’s for dinner because I can’t cook, cheering on the colts, buying a dog, having no money, and just enjoying life together… i love the engagement period because you have time to prepare for what this huge step into marriage but it’s already been almost 270 days of being engaged and with each passing day, I become more and more excited…

to our families reading this…we can’t wait to see you this weekend

where is the love? November 24, 2008

the second verse in the Old Testament Book of Malachi says:

“I have loved you,” says the LORD.
      ”But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’

 

yesterday @ church (www.eccbloomington.org), our youth pastor, Matt Wooden, talked about the book of Malachi. and it was powerful. the verse listed above really stuck with me as Matt dived into what this verse is really saying in our lives today.

the Lord loves us. He always has and always will. Yet, in the midst of a struggling economy, hard times, confusion as to where you are going to work and live, the list goes on, we ask God how He has loved us. Whoa. I think that if I was God, I would first lay a little smack-down and then look at each of His creation’s in the eye and say “are you REALLY asking me how I have loved you??”  That even though this nation is going through hard times fiscally that we still have enough, it may just not be all the “things” we have had before, that we still have love and fellowship, and most importantly- we still have a HOPE in our ETERNITY?

As I am waiting to hear back from my job interview last weekend and counting down the days until our marriage begins (124), I think it is easy to ask God how He has loved me. I just want answers. I am the type of person, and come from the type of family, who wants answers and works to get those answers. However, God does not work according to my timeline or my plan. But what the beginning of Malachi taught me was that even if my job is not what I want it to be and the money doesn’t come in the amount I would like it to, God still loves me. more than I could ever love him or anything else. so rather than questioning Him, I think maybe our society should calm down and rest in His love… in fact, I challenge you to that this week as you are finishing up work and school before the holiday season- rest in the Lord and know that HE LOVES YOU and will provide on His terms, which always always always end up better than what we could have imagined.

the week of surprises. November 18, 2008

lots to update on…

last Friday Jeremy surprised me and took me to the Third Day concert (www.thirdday.com) @ the IU Auditorium.  Third Day is my favorite band ever and acutally reminds me a lot of Jeremy beeecauuuuseee…

right after we met Jeremy was already crazy about me of course and there was a Third Day concert up @ Ball State. A bunch of IU people were going, including Jeremy, and he invited me to go with him.. unfortunately, I could not because I had a huge test from like 7pm-9pm that Friday night (the Kelley School of Business has lame test days..maybe thats one of the reasons why I left that program )but Jeremy offered to miss part of the concert and stay behind and wait for me to finish so we could drive up to Ball State together. It ended up not happening because we would have missed almost the entire concert by the time we got there but it still showed me early on how sweet he was

Anyways, so almost 3 years later, we finally got to go together.. We actually ended up liking the first two bands, Revive & Need to Breathe, better and got to hang out with the drummer and his wife of Revive.. it was pretty sweet

speaking of surprises.. look @ the beautiful flowers my fiance surprised me with

then, both of our families came down to Bloomington to tailgate and go to the football game. It was FRIGID but still so fun to be with both jeremy’s and my family not too many pictures were taken because it was so cold but i did manage to get this one..

haha

along with my interview this past weekend, I had a good friend, Hannah Martin, bachelorette party in Indy… it was fun I could not be more excited for her and brandon to be married in less than TWO WEEKS. they are super cute and truly love one another- he has been in training for the past 6 months and they have only seen each other a couple times. he won’t be back until 2 days before the weddding and then will be deployed 8 months after the wedding… but hannah is one of the strongest people I know and refuses to look @ the situation negatively. I can’t wait to see her walk down the aisle

she is a goof..

she had to draw out of a hat things to do while we were at circle center..this included things like proclaiming to the mall that she was getting married, tossing her bouquet to a group of people, asking teenagers for marriage advice etc..this is a oneof the guy’s that had to take part in the dares..he also looks eeriely like andrew wilson if any of you know him.

and of course, presents this was one of the modest ones

finally.. yesterday was an absolute blast.. 4 of my bridesmaids skipped class/work and went with me up to Indy for my second dress fitting (AHHHHHH! I LOOOOOOOOOVE MY DRESS!!! and it’s finally my size!) and to meet with my florist to pick out basically everything for the entire day. I appreciate them SOOO Much and had fun being able to spend time with them.. these last few months are precious time as we still don’t know where we are moving and it could be far away Heather was her normal self and took pictures during the meeting…

Heather was excited about the flowers…

emily was just excited to be there…

and of course we have alicia…

the florist was really great and I would recommend her to anyone. Her name is Angela Jacobson and her website is: www.painteddaisy.com

whew, so that was a lot of catching up! The next two weeks will be a little frantic with school but then there is THANKSGIVING and HANNAH’s WEDDING!!! After that, only 2 1/2 more weeks of college left for me!!

much love from Amber AND Jeremy

Peyton Lee Gray November 16, 2008

this is my new cousin Peyton!!! I only have three cousins so it’s a pretty big deal to have a new one And if you are wondering why he looks rather large in the pictures it’s because he was 10 pounds and 22 inches long. and my aunt had a natural birth. ouch…

PS- For those of you who have asked, my interview went super well this past weekend… I should find out in 1-3 weeks.. keep your fingers crossed

what will our future hold? November 13, 2008

well, we might find out this weekend… I will be in Indianapolis ALL weekend for the BIGGEST interview of my life. yikes!

so if you could, toss up a little (or preferably, a big) prayer for me ….the first half of the interview is Friday night and the main interview is Saturday morning.

the last day of fall. November 11, 2008

it’s been awhile since i’ve updated..it’s not that I haven’t had anything to write but rather, too much has been going on and I just haven’t had time to write   Jeremy and I were blessed to have both our parents and siblings visit us this past weekend to tailgate, go to the last home IU football game, and pick out the food for our wedding!  It was a BLAST. I am soo fortunate to have the parents and future in-laws that I do.  More on that later because I haven’t uploaded the pictures yet..

Anyways, so the weekend before, I was able to check off one more thing on my “things to do while still in bloomington” list….the apple orchard! I went with 4 of my roommates to Musgrave Orchards which is about 15 minutes north of Bloomington. Although it was a bit different than we expected (for example, there were no apples), it was still a blast and was apparently the last warm weekend of the year..

as you can see, no apples…

no apples, but still pretty

me & alicia..engagement picture wannabe, don’t ya think?

and then there is micki

this is actually pretty cool because my camera is sitting in a tree branch in order to get this picture. however, i obviously thought it was a dramatic picture

and then we started our “running through the fields” photo shoot…

ps– mom: did you notice my shirt???

after all of that.. I got to see my INDY roomies! Alicia and Kristin came down for the night to visit me.. it was so so so so so good to see them again and we had a blast I am so thankful that even though the process of finding roommates for the summer (during my internship in Indy) was ridicously stressful and hard, it turned out so well-whoever knew that 4 strangers could become some of your closest friends??

the two cutest trick-or-treaters… November 1, 2008

these are the two kiddos I babysit weekly.. I LOVE them dearly.

Miss Clara.. a pretty little ballerina

and A.J…. the Nutcracker.

so thankful for this cute, amazing family

and i miss that stud of a fiance’…. November 1, 2008

so if you are an avid reader (because I know the ramblings of my daily life totally interest you ). then you know that Jeremy has been in Chicago since Wednesday to drum @ a Crusade Conference [see post below this].

Well, as excited and happy as I am for him, I am having the hardest time with him being gone.  It’s not that I can’t spend more then a day away from him (hey, we’ve gone 91 days apart, I think I can do 5), it’s just that I wish I could be there to support him and see him play in front of all these people.. I am his biggest fan and I hate that for this conference, I have to be his fan 5 hours away from where he is. It makes me cry thinking about it

In light of this homesickness of my future hubby, I am going to be cheesy and share a few of the bazillion good times we’ve had in the past 2.5 years….

this is the first “date” we went on.. aka, there were 18 other people with us and I was paired up with his best friend, Josh, and he was paired up with my friend, Jannelle… needless to say, we didn’t spend any time talking to our assigned dates

this is our first picture as a “couple”… in the Wright food court. of course our first picture would be near food

i love how for the first few months of our relationship, jeremy’s hair is longer in each picture but then, it was all cut off

spring break with the Lee family

Halloween 2007.. Danny & Sandy

skipping ahead to the night Jeremy proposed.. this was about an hour before he was down on one knee thinking about this night gives me chills.. i wish we could go back and do it all again.. we definitely have the best engagement story ever

engaged!! March 06, 2008

love you so much Jer! i am incredibly proud of you

ps.. on an unrelated note, Kohls is having a HUGE early bird sale tomorrow morning (Saturday)..you better believe I’m getting up early to buy me some fall clothes