(I'm going to let Adam take the reins on this post, but just wanted to preface with how PROUD I am of my amazing husband. His baptism was one of the most awesome days, ever. He just blew me away and I don't think I've ever been more proud. He has grown to be such an amazing leader of our family and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for him!)

Hello world! Here to make my blogging debut, it's me Adam! Sorry that my first post is super long!

I'd like to start and say a big Thank You! to all of our family and friends that have given me the support and prayers that have helped me get to this day. It truly was an incredible experience. The Lord has been working in me a lot the past few months and I have been thinking about getting baptized for a while, but never could bring myself to do so. But with the push from my small group and my wife, I finally decided to do it.

I was massively freaking out about it. I was mainly nervous because I didn't know how it was supposed to go, and I didn't know what to say. The church emailed me a brief summary of what happens, but it wasn't very detailed so I didn't really know how this would go down. The email said I had to say something before I get baptized, but didn't specify how much, so I didn't know whether to say a sentence or a story. God put it on my heart to tell my testimony so I typed it all out and looked up and it was 8 pages single spaced, way too long. I finally cut it to the bare minimum and got it to about a 6 minute speech. But I was still freaking out that it was way too long.

We get to church that day and the pastor shows us where to sit and says that three other people were getting baptized, two children and one teenager. I thought, "Great, I'm the only adult. This will be weird." After we all went up front and the pastor asked us questions to declare our faith, I sat down and watched the two adorable children get baptized.

Right before my turn, I looked at Lizzie and said, "This is going to be weird, it's going to be too long." She assured me over and over that it was going to be great. My wife was my biggest supporter through this and was the main reason why I decided to get baptized.

Normally when I speak in front of people, I get the shakes real bad and I use a lot of filler words. But as I walked up there, the power of God came over me, and if I hadn't wrote what I was going to say down, I wouldn't be able to tell you what I said. It was almost like a trance. But here is my testimony:

I'm here because my life changed back in August. At the time I was extremely depressed and convinced that God had left me. I would beg him to show himself to me, but I would get nothing. I was so fed up with it. My wife and I had been coming to Stonebridge for about 2 years, but it was very off and on. She was the one who would get us to go since I always wanted to go "next week." But for some reason last August, I went to church by myself.

I don't know what David was talking about that day, but one simple sentence stood out. "Faith is standing on the chair." He gave the analogy that Faith is not looking at the chair and saying, "Yeah, I bet that can hold me up." Faith is getting up and standing on the chair. 

After church I went to breakfast with my Dad. For some reason I started pouring into him saying that God has left me, and I keep calling for him and he doesn't answer and he has turned his back to me. After my rant, and a very long pause, I'll never forget as he leaned over the table, looked me dead in the eye and said, "Son, God didn't leave you. Have you thought that you turned your back to God?"

Later that night, there I was sitting on my couch thing about what happened that day. I thought, "Ok, I'll try and stand on the chair." I got out my Bible and looked at it and realized I had no idea where to start. So, like everyone, I Googled it, "Where to start reading the Bible." All the results came back Mark, Luke, and John, but it didn't feel right to me even though I didn't really know what those books actually said. So I went to page 2, and there was Ephesians. Guess what Ephesians is about: Faith.

Ephesians 2:1 "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world… But because of his great love for us, GOD, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by Grace you have been saved. And GOD raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms of Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by Grace you have been saved, through Faith, not by works, so that no one can boast." 

I broke down to my knees and started praying. I told God I was going to get on the chair, I was going to put my whole life in his hands. I felt the Lord in that room that night. He was standing over me and he put his hand on my back and the whole room was flooded with light. I saw the Devil in a black hood standing in the corner and I saw him leave as soon as God touched me. It was and incredible experience, I just didn't know what to do next. 

The next week "happened" to be small group sign up, and even two weeks prior I would have never signed up for small groups, I didn't really see the point. But God put it on my heart to join one. It has been incredible. Just to hear these men of God share their experiences and struggles and pray with them. They helped me go from having an incredible experience to being a full fledge God follower who wants to share the word. 

So here I am, and if you knew me 2 years ago, heck even 6 months ago, I'd be the last person you'd expect up here. But i'm here to declare that I am saved by the Blood of Christ, and it's through Faith, not by acts, that I am saved, and I want to share the word of God with the world. And it's all because I got up on the chair. 

Here's the group that got baptized with me!

What an incredible experience having my wife, father, pastor and small group leader pour the water.

This is Scott, my small group leader.

My great family that God has blessed me with.

Three

Today Adam and I celebrate our third wedding anniversary. We were talking the other day that three years of marriage actually sounds like we're grown ups. Anything before three and you're basically still a newlywed. So, year three. We now know EVERYTHING!

Ok, maybe not everything. But here are some things I do know...

1. With Adam having a steady paycheck and loving his job, life is a lot more fun.

2. I stopped being neurotic about our budget spreadsheet (re: I stopped doing it altogether) and we set up a new budget plan (80% of paychecks go into joint, 20% go into our own separate accounts where we can do as we please). Now I can't yell at Adam for eating at China Dragon four times a week, because I don't see/care where he's wasting his chunk of change. 

3. Adam still puts up with me. (Y'all, I really don't know how long this one will last. Sometimes A lot of times, I look at him and ask "Why in the world do you put up with my random fits of anger that are usually directed at you?" This was a real conversation last week...)

Me: Did you take those coats into work to donate them?
Adam: No, that's on Fridays.
Me: But it is SO cold out, people are going to FREEZE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S ON FRIDAYS? I TOLD YOU I WANTED TO DONATE THEM BEFORE THE TEMPERATURE WENT INTO THE NEGATIVES.
Adam: No, you didn't. If you had said that, I would have told you our company only does it on Fridays.
Me: WHATEVER. I'm still pissed because you didn't put away the laundry or do the dishes or clean up your side of the closet. (Side note: Since when is Adam a stay-at-home wife? I'm glad we both have the ability to laugh at ourselves me minutes later... Sometimes.)

4. I still put up with Adam. (That's because he's cute and funny...and deals with my fits of psychosis.)
5. We love and support each other a whole lot.

Happy anniversary, lover boy! Here's to a lifetime more...

UPDATE
Check out this amazing meal we made on our actual anniversary. Adam made the steak and lobster (yum!) and I slaved over asparagus and Rice-A-Roni (haha, yeah right). It was such a fun little night, just the two of us.

New beginnings...again

How many blogs have I titled "New beginnings" or something similar? I'll have to go back and count. I guess that's what is so exciting about life and being young - we run into new beginnings all the time. Lucky for me, I love change. I love change so much I still can't believe we bought a house. I would move to another state in a heartbeat. Yes, we would miss our family and our friends - but I just love a change of scenery. (With that being said, I catch myself saying "I love our house" multiple times a week.)

Enough about little ole me! This post is actually about Adam...or as he corrects me, "our family". (And here we come to a screeeeeching halt.... our family still just consists of me, Adam and Ruthie - so don't get excited about any expansions anytime soon.)

Ok, for real - moving on. A couple months ago, Adam received a sign (read: he did something that really pissed me off) that maybe coaching and teaching isn't what he really wants to do. He thought about it for a month or so (bossy ole me made sure he didn't just jump to a decision without really thinking about it.), and decided it's not what he wants to do. After asking him "Are you surrrree???" a million times in a million different ways, he finally put his foot down and said that while he is naturally really good at coaching/dealing with bratty teenagers/having the patience of Jobe, his heart was not in it. OK - I can respect that.

One of his close friends and college baseball buddies, Chad, worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and loved it. After they had some heart to hearts, Adam decided he wanted to apply. After four or so interviews, he found out he got the job the day before we left for Italy! Woo hoo!!

He's now in his third week and loves it! It's funny, I think the hours are really long (he leaves around 6:30am and gets home around 7:00pm), but he thinks it's a breeze compared to baseball season.

I'm super proud of him for making this decision - he had a lot of people telling him he had to coach and it's what he was meant to do, but he knew what was best for him and went for it.

10 Steps to a Surprise Party

Yesterday, I successfully pulled off my very first surprise party! You may recall that my fabulous husband threw one for me last year, so I felt it was necessary to return the favor. (Plus, 25 is kind of a big year!)

Not that I am a pro at this or anything, but here's my quick rundown on how I successfully pulled it off.

1. Create an "Invite Only" Facebook event. Include all of the information people need: who, what, when, where, why, how - cover all your bases.Turns out they don't have a "Private" option anymore (which is kind of nerve wrecking), but "Invite Only" is the same thing. And yes, I did some intense research to make sure that is the case.

2. Hey, Elizabeth - not everyone is a Facebook freak. Turns  out not everyone checks Facebook every 37 seconds like I do. Make sure to send out a Save the Date text/phone call, too. Also, Adam is a baseball coach and I conveniently don't have all of the other coaches' numbers. I was able to track two wives down on Facebook and chatted with another at one of the games, but this was tricky. I guess you can search through their phone for numbers, but I didn't get around to that.

3. Figure out how to get the surprisee out of the house for hours, without being totally conspicuous.  This was a toughy, and I was kind of starting to freak out until our friend Doug offered to invite him to golf that morning - hallelujah! If you're throwing this party for a guy - golf is the way to go. He was out of the house for close to 6 hours which gave me time to get everything done (but boy did I cut it close...).

4. Plan out your day (see #3 and #4). Adam left to go golfing around 8am and was due back at 2pm. PLENTY of time, or at least that's what I thought in my head. Be sure to plan out what you have to accomplish before the party starts and what you'd like to accomplish. Remember, utilize those awesome friends of yours (if possible) for anything last minute.
Must dos: 
Clean
Decorate (tossed this over to a few friends that arrived early)
Run last minute errands (they will pop up, so schedule time for them)
Pick up the keg
Shower (oh, yeah... that)

Like to dos (that didn't happen):
Curl my hair
Paint my nails
Meticulously hang every decoration

5. Keep a running list of things you'll need on your phone (I kept mine in the notes section). It's funny what different things will sneak up one you. Some of those items include: trash bags, disposable table cloths/plates/forks/cups/napkins (unless you're into doing a lot of dishes), something to hold the keg in (that was a fun 11th hour trip to Wal Mart), ICE, candles, non-alcoholic drinks, etc.

6. When people offer to help - take it! Let's practice...
Generous guest: "What can I bring?"
Overwhelmed host's wrong answer: "Oh, nothing! I've got it!"
Overwhelmed host's meh answer: "I don't know... chips?"
Overwhelmed host's correct answer: "That's so nice of you to offer! Would you mind bringing insert need here?" (including, but not limited to: chairs, card tables, sides, desserts, etc.)

7. People will get hungry - make sure you feed them. Do something easy... I chose burgers and hot dogs, and thanks to all of our awesome friends - the sides and desserts were covered! Don't forget what goes with hamburgers and hot dogs, though: buns, condiments, pickles, tomatoes, onions, etc.

8. BYOB is not tacky. I had a keg and one of our fabulous friends made a vodka punch and another set up an Irish Car Bomb station. I let the masses know, and if they wanted anything else they had to BYOB. Nothing cheap about that, my friends.

9. Wholesale is your friend, but not for everything. Definitely source your hamburgers, hot dogs, condiments and buns from Costco/Sam's/your wholesaler of choice, but it's not necessary to buy a pack of 37 tomatoes for hamburgers. (Unless you're having a party with hundreds of people - then it might be necessary.)

10. Don't forget your manners. You may feel like everyone owes you the world for pulling off such a kick ass party, but try to remember that everyone played a part in making the day so successful. Thank everyone for coming and make sure they know where the bathrooms are.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure I did some other brilliant things that I can't think of right now. Pshhhh, yeah right! Huge thank you to our incredible friends and family who helped pull off Adam's most amazing birthday party, ever! He was SO surprised!

Here's a video clip of him walking in (kudos to mom for taking it!).

And now, for some pictures to commemorate the amazing day. We love you, Adam!