stress

Webster's dictionary defines stress as:

1. a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation; 2. a state resulting from a stress; especially : one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stress

I define stress as:

1. an unhealthy mental or emotional state caused by a. a 5-page theory paper, b. a 5-page summary paper, c. a (time consuming) exegesis on the John 17:13-19, d. a 5-page book report, e. one final test (this week), f. one final test (next week)

love,

Lauren

C + L + laughs + love = a year and a half of marriage

*(even though this post will be time stamped on the 24th, pretend it is the 23rd)*

chris and i have been married for a year and a half today! 1 year and 6 months. or 18 months. or approximately 548 days.

and we LOVE each other more and more every single day. (even the days when he is stressed or i am a little crazy). ha.

seriously, though, we love being together, hanging out, being silly, working, watching tv...whatever. we just enjoy spending time together. Now that Chris is working at TOL we are able to see each other even more. since we don't have the exact same schedule, we don't spend every waking moment together and it allows us to still have lots to talk about at the end of the day.

so, we have another 6 months under our belt. and we are still going strong. we have our issues as do all married couples, but we are enjoying every minute of being married. i pray that even as our love for each other grows and matures that we will not forget that exciting, new kind of love - the butterflies in your stomach, giddy kind of love. i want to keep that spark alive in our marriage. and i think we are doing a pretty good job of that so far.

so, happy year and a half anniversary, my love! can't wait for many more celebrations of our marriage!

chris and i - july 2009 - Photo by: Captured by Joelle

as a side note, it is 5 months and 1 week until graduation! we are so excited to be done with school and move onto the next chapter in our lives. to be honest - i am also scared because we don't know what we will be doing in the next chapter of our lives. please be praying with and for us as we seek the Lord's will for what he wants us to do come May 2.

~L

influence

We were talking about influence in my Youth Evangelism and Discipleship class today. Here is a definition of influence from our class notes:

"This word “influence” includes the way you are in every area of your life. Influence can be defined as how your life touches people over a period of time. Therefore, everyone has an influence/witness, but not everyone is an evangelist."

If you breathe – you are an influence - it is just a matter of what kind of influence.

So, what kind of influence are you?

Positive?

Or

Negative?

~L

FAMILY!

this past weekend, my family came to Indiana for meetings, book stuff, and for my Grandma's 80th birthday surprise party! all my extended family on my dad's side also came for the festivities. we had such a great time catching up, hanging out, and celebrating grandma.

here are some pics of from the festivities:

the center pieces

grandma had no idea - she was very

surprised!

Uncle Dave and Aunt Beverly kicking off the party

g-ma and her cake

The whole Bogear Family!

Happy Birthday, Grandma - we love you tons!

~L

snider news

hello all -

i know it has been a while, but here i am again.

Chris and i are doing well - keeping very busy! senior year is trekking right along. (i can't believe it is already November!!!)

i suppose the biggest news right now is that Chris is officially done with Starbucks! whoop! whoop! :D he just started last week at Tree of Life (TOL), the Christian bookstore and cafe that i work at. for now he is only working through Christmas, but we are hoping that our boss will decide to keep him on through the end of the school year - please be praying for us about this.

in other news - my mom and dad's book, Faith Legacy, was released at the beginning of October. we are all very excited about it! they are doing some promo for it this week - a radio show, book signing, tv spot, etc. and they are doing it in IN, so we get to see them this week. in fact, they are doing one of their book signings at TOL! :D you can purchase it HERE!

chris and i just registered for classes for our last semester of college! OH MAN! it is CRAZY! i can hardly believe this season in our lives is coming to a close. feels good, but super scary at the same time.

just to let you all know - i am planning on creating a separate blog or website for my pictures. i have been really getting into taking pics and i have A TON to share with you all. i will still post some on this blog, but with this new site, i can post a link on this blog and you can watch a slideshow of the pics. it just allows me to upload more and better quality pictures. i will let you know when that is ready.

i hope that brings you up to date.

here are a couple of pics from our trip to KY that i promised:

the beautiful state of Kentucky

we found this cool old factory with these awesome

red doors!

we found this church that had a chapel

attached to it with this beautiful red door

(obviously, we were not lacking in red doors)

chris edited this one - love it!

love,

~L

kentucky + senior year = greatness

so i am a little slow in posting this post, but here goes.

for chris' birthday and as a last chance to get away before school starts, we took a 2-day trip to the beautiful state of kentucky. we spent some time with our friend, Nate, in Louisville. we went to the college group at his church, which is an awesome worship service with about 500 people.

we stayed the night with Jeremiah, Lindsay, and Annabella Aja in Wilmore . it was so good to get to catch up with them. we ate some great pizza, talked, and played games. staying with them was so relaxing and refreshing. THANKS, FRIENDS.

we took a ton of great pictures (which i will post later) and just had a great time together.

in other news:

SENIOR YEAR HAS BEGUN.

let the graduation countdown commence! :D

classes started on tuesday, and this is the first semester of my college career that i haven't felt totally overwhelmed by my class load. i have some challenging classes, but i am stoked for them. :D

chris is a more difficult semester (especially with work), but he will prevail! :D

on a more serious note:

chris and i would really appreciate your prayers as we journey through this final year of our college careers. it is exciting and scary all at the same time! we are so pumped for what the future holds, but scared out of our minds - for what the future holds. rather, what God's has for our future. and that is the truth that we hold to - that the Lord has wonderful plans for us - to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future. please pray that he will guide us where we are to be after graduation (we are praying for something more on the western half of the US.) :D

thank you. we love you all.

~L and C~

photography

lately (within the last year or so) i have become very interested in photography. i am not great at it, but i enjoy it very much.

i have been putting off posting this post because i have been nervous to put my pictures "out there." well, here are some of them. i thought i would post some of my favorites and see what people think.

enjoy. and please comment/give feedback.

miscellaneous / other

portraits

wedding

summer lovin'

hello all - sorry it's been so long, but it has been a crazy few weeks. the week after chris and i got back from Florida, we headed down to Evansville, Indiana for a few days for our friends, Dustin and Hillary's, wedding. we had such a blast. i'll post some pictures here, but you can see the full album on facebook. 

then last weekend was our friends, Sam and Sean's wedding. we had such a blast. (again, will post pictures here, but will post a whole album on FB). 

both weddings were beautiful and so much fun! it is so awesome to have married friends! :D 

other than all the weddings, chris and i have been working and hanging out. we don't have much going on for a couple of weeks. but at the beginning of July, Sam and I head to Wisconsin to be in another wedding. 

then it is California time!!! coming soon: July 14-21!!! yay! SO EXCITED! it has been way too long since we have been home! oh, and we will be home over my 21st birthday (the 16th) - so that will be fun! 

busy, busy summer. it is going by so fast, but we are enjoying every minute of it. 

here are the pics:

krantz' wedding!

schwarze's wedding!

fun facts

we are home. 2 days of driving for 8+ hours (with stops) and we are home. 

we stopped in Louisville for a few hours to hang out with a friend from school, nate. he just graduated and is doing an internship for the college ministry at Southeast Christian Church. (it's a huge church and their facilities are amazing!). we went to dinner with him and talked awhile before hitting the road again.

so here are some fun facts from our 1 year anniversary trip:

- from marion, indiana to flagler beach, florida, there are 53+ waffle house restaurants (yes, we counted - it was a long drive)

- we went to target 6 times (2x in one day).

- sometimes, when there are storms near the beach, the ocean creates a moat like thing between the ocean and the beach. we had to cross the moat (about thigh high) to get to the actual ocean.

- florida has huge face-eating (sort of) flying creatures that look like a cross between a cricket and a grasshopper. freaked me out everytime!

- these face-eating bugs are especially scary when lying in bed in a dark room watching tv and one jumps onto your shoulder - yes, this happened to me. there was screaming and running and freaking out. animal control (aka. my husband) was called and took care of this ungodly creature.

- we ate mcdonalds twice in a 24 hour period - enjoyed it - then regretted it as we were making our way to the restroom. 

- starbucks employees are quite nice at 5 o'clock in the morning

- mcdonalds employees at 5 o'clock in the morning are lucky to be employed when they fall asleep between the time they tell you the total and the time you hand them your money. (actually happened - she fell asleep as chris was handing her the money - and she got our order completely wrong!)

- chris' little bbq is so awesome - it doesn't heat up very hot, so it slow cooks the meat to perfection

- my husband is a stud chef

- you can never take too many silly pictures under a lamp post (see facebook album)

- and last, but not least, driving 30+ hours round trip, eating more than our body weight in one week, taking tons of pictures, and celebrating our one-year anniversary is one adventure we will never forget!

love,

~L

first anniversary!

saturday (our anniversary) was tons of fun. chris made me pancakes and bacon for breakfast (he is quite the chef, if you hadn't figured that out). 

the sun came out so we went to the beach for about an hour. then we got all cleaned up to go out. he took me to target where i got to pick out my anniversary present - a necklace. then we went to see Star Trek, which was amazing, by the way (GO SEE IT)!

after the movie, we went to a restaurant called the Aquarium. we were a little disappointed, but the food was pretty good. the restaurant is promoted as a dining and dancing place. we left the restaurant with intentions of coming back. unfortunately, when we got back, we discovered that you have to be 21 to get in. me - being 20 - could not get in. oh well. 

the menus lit up when you opened them 

(so did the holder that held the bill)

 

when we got back, chris made a funfetti cake. let me explain: our wedding cake was funfetti, but since we didn't have the top of our wedding cake to freeze and then eat on our one-year - we just made a new cake. (i suggest this method to any newleyweds - i'm sure it tastes better than freezer-burned, year-old cake. :D)

our cake that chris made :D

it was a very good one year anniversary, and i'm excited for many more years to come. 

at the beginning of our date

after dinner (on the dock) (my new necklace)

one year ago, today...

...i married my best friend. 

i can't believe it has been an entire year. wow! time has flown by, and i know it will continue to keep moving fast. we have really enjoyed the beginning of this journey, called marriage. yes, there have been rough times, especially with school and being far away from home and whatnot, but we really do love being married. 

let me just tell you about the man i married. he is the sweet, caring, romantic, hansom, thoughtful, smart, understanding, hilarious, witty, sexy, loving....i could go on...

basically, i love him a lot! i've hear old couples say that they love their spouses more now than they did the day they got married. i always wondered how that worked...now i know. i know because i have fallen more in love with my husband every day for the last 365 days...and i know i will keep falling in love with him.  

thanks for letting me brag about the man i love. happy anniversary, chris. i love you more today than the day i married you! :D

here are some pics of our first year together:

the beginning of our journey (May 23, 2008)

road trip, moving out to indiana (6/08)

chicago (8/08)

halloween (10/08)

6 month anniversary/thanksgiving (11/08)

our first Christmas (12/08)

making cookies over spring break (3/09)

introducing: the Hawaiian Bacon Teriyaki Burger

last night, for dinner, my husband made me his Hawaiian bacon teriyaki burgers (adapted from his dad's teriyaki burgers). They were DELICIOUS! i told chris that the burgers deserved their own post on the blog - he agreed. 

basically, (without giving away any secrets), these burgers are a combination of flavors of pineapple, teriyaki, hamburger, bacon, and a special secret ingredient. they are delicious and juicy. mmmm. chris brought his little grill to grill them on (hence the picture with the fire in it). 

(p.s. chris took the menu-worthy pictures of his creation). :D

grillin' the burgers (mouth watering)

yummmm.....(this should be on a menu)

we ate outside on the deck...

beyond those houses is the ocean