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