Life

The past month I have been taught the incredible value and beauty of life. A little over a month ago I was given news that would threaten the life of someone I love dearly. As my family and I continue to wait and hope to hear differently, I constantly think of something I feel I have mostly taken for granted: life.
We are given one life. In this one life we are given purpose and a mission. No one life is without purpose. I truly believe that. Ask anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide and you will know that even those who felt that their own life was worthless, that they were wrong. Their life affected many people around them and without that life around, they are missed and cause a great rift in the hearts that loved them. Life is a gift. Life is important. Every life.
Even though I know I've taken life for granted, I've always spent a lot of time thinking about life and how short it is. My dad always said the older you get the faster life goes. He is certainly right. Living far away from my family always gets me because I know life is short and I would rather spend as much time with them instead away from them. But even though I may spend a lot of time thinking of the value of life does not mean always mean I  think of the gift of life. I definitely waste a lot of my time doing things that are, yes, fun and relaxing, but it is time like these that I wish I could spend more of my time telling my loved ones how much I love them. I hate spending so much time and thought on paying bills or how to efficiently run my house. Sure these things need to be done but they do not need to rule my life.
I have been given a greater appreciation of life. Of my life. My families' life. My friends' life. My enemies' life.
I hope that not too far away I can say "wow that was a close one" or "I'm so happy it's not this" but either way, I know that whatever life we have left, whatever life my dad has left; it is valuable, it is a gift, and it is not something to be taken for granted.
I felt like this was a lesson I did not want to forget. I want to be reminded every day the preciousness of life.

This is my reminder. This is "life" in Hebrew. I have been given the gift of life and I have accepted the gift of eternal life.
I hope that my hard lesson can help you value your own life and the lives of all those around you. Spend your time loving, laughing, growing, forgiving, and living.

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.”  -Mother Teresa

Two wonderful years

These last two years married to Brand have been the best two years of my life. Everyday I am reminded of how blessed I am to have married my best friend. As someone who has always been shy about who I am, it is truly beautiful to be with someone that I can be my complete self around all the time. I cannot express how much Brand has been an answer to prayers: both mine and my family. I am so thankful for my parents who began praying for Brand the moment I was born and who continued to pray for me and Brand long before they or even myself knew who Brand was.
So celebrating two years of marriage is not just about me and Brand. It is about the seeds God planted many years ago, the love He cultivated at just the right time, and the endless support from friends and family.
As we enter into our third year of marriage we are faced with heavy hearts as together we face a serious health problem in our family. As we have during our times of richer and poorer and sickness and health we lean on the Father that brought us together and holds us together. I am so blessed to have my best friend constantly by my side during this time of unknowing. To have my best friend hold me and sob with me on the kitchen floor. To have my best friend laugh hysterically with me at our unique sense of humor. To have my best friend pray when I can't speak. To be married to my best friend has been a true blessing and I cannot wait to spend many more years with him.

Brand, I love you more than you know. Everyday I will try my best to be the woman you deserve.

Hope and Life

Bad news can shake you to the core. As you cry, it can make you wish that it is all a nightmare and you pray for someone to press the restart button. Bad news can make your life flash before your eyes and make the future seem bleak and without purpose.

Hope is the restart button. Hope is what tells you to keep on going. Hope helps you sleep. Hope gets you through the day. Hope is the ladder that pulls you out of the hole of despair and grief. Hope is what tells you that it is not time to grieve yet, it is time to LIVE, it is time to pray for an answer...

This is not a time for details, but this is a time for me to reach out to you for prayer. Please pray for physical healing, for a different answer, for life, for hope, for time.

I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in miracles. I believe in HOPE.

Please take this time to hug your loved ones and to say a prayer for mine.

When the time is right, I will give details but right now we are just asking that you pray for HOPE.

Celebrate LIFE and keep up the HOPE!

Be still my coeur!

Brand and I had a beautiful Saturday in Coeur d'Alene, ID. We had so much fun and relaxation! We ate, swam, and then ate some more (Gooey's!!).

At one point I asked Brand if he too felt a little like we were on a honeymoon. He said yeah! I think it was because we were away from the routine, from the errands, and were able to just focus on each other. It was a lot of fun :)

The lake :)

My sweet

Post-swim

Brand with our Huckleberry Gooey!

Me with our Hucklberry Gooey (yes those are two chocolate covered strawberries, yum!)

Conquered!

W00t!

I'm pretty excited for the next few weeks!
Here's why:
1.) Brand is taking me to an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing which will be awesome because I love the Idaho Shakespeare Festival (For you Non-Idahoans..it's brilliant and it's all outside in this beautiful ampitheater) so I'm pretty excited to get my fix which I haven't had for awhile!
2.)Brand and I are going swimming at Lake Coeur d'Alene this weekend and I'm excited to get the HUGE ice cream afterwards :)
3.) Part 1 of our anniversary celebration is going to take place 5 days before in Seattle when we get to see Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance in concert! We're going with my little bro Stevo and his friend and we're pretty excited for the whirlwind day!
4.) Part 2 of our anniversary celebration will take place in Boise! We're going back to B-Town for Labor Day weekend to see family, eat Brazillian, and of course...nervously watch BSU play their opener against Georgia...THEN we'll be taking the 4th to spend time together  in the city we got married and spend a lovely romantic evening somewhere special to us.(We will be taking a break to meet the sibs and friends to do some fantasy football drafting)
5.) Part 3 of our anniversary celebration will happen on our actual anniversary and basically it means I get to eat the best Kobe beef ever. We also get to keep up some traditions we started last year. I'm pretty stoked about it :)


And not in the next few weeks but coming this fall..
1.) Cassie's birthday celebration! Mollie and I always get together with Cassie either in Spokane or in Walla Walla to get the gang back together and rock the world together.
2.)NYC trip!!! Plane tickets aren't bought yet but they might as well be. So excited to see the Big Apple with a few of my favorite girls in the world (Dani, Mollie, and Cassie!)


But tonight..
I have a special date night planned just for Brand. I'm excited to drive him around Spokane blindfolded...so he can feel what it was like when we got engaged and I was blindfolded half the time haha.

Anyway, have a lovely week, fall, year!

Reunited

I've started working out again. Makes me feel old but rejuvenated at the same time.
I wish I could just go for a nice run like most of you but it's incredibly painful and I'm pretty sure it has to do with my low blood pressure. So I've resorted to my 8 years of conditioning in gymnastics to create my own little routine. It's fun to be back in the metaphorical saddle again.

In other news, I've cut down my soda intake to one a day...which has been helpful in the "eating right" department.

In "Brand was right" news...Brand always thought that despite my love of junk food, I wasn't eating enough calories every day. Thanks to a handy dandy Android App (My Fitness Pal if you are looking for a handy calorie counter) I found out that I'm short about 200-500 calories a day! Sheesh! So I've been working on that which is really hard when you're trying to eat right but I'm looking for a healthier lifestyle in all arenas.
Speaking of which...I'm hungry...I'm going to eat some cookies (Thanks mama Adams!)

A Date Night for the Books

Wow! With a title like that we must have done something huge, spectacular, romantic, and something extremely expensive...
Well if that's what you thought then you really don't know Brand and me very well.

As Brand and I near closer to our two year anniversary I constantly find myself finding more things that makes me fall deeper in love with him (ahem...sorry for the cheesyness..that may be the last for this post..I can't promise anything).

So what was this amazing date?

1.) Branderpants made some yummy tacos!
2.) We played Scrabble...at Brand's request...Brand hates board games..so this was out of pure love (P.s. I beat him finally..by a lot! Losing millions of games of Words with Friends on my phone mainly against my brother have finally paid off!) Then this exchange totally proved that we are definitely made for each other:
(Showing him the picture I took of the letters I had during the game that spelled Ass Text)
Me: A message sent from your pocket!
Brand: OR...
Allison: An ancient Mexican people!! (Aztecs)
Seriously..no one else would have given me this comic gold, and no one else would've not flinched when I totally knew what he was talking about.
3.) We watched Dead Alive. Which is the bloodiest movie ever made (seriously, most fake blood ever used in one movie...for instance, the last scene had 300 liters of fake blood) I almost puked a couple times. And I definitely laughed until I cry...I could have not watched this movie and enjoyed it THIS much with anyone else. (Yes we will be owning this movie someday!)
4.) I get to share my love of British TV with him. I didn't think he would enjoy it as much as I do even though he loves the Monty Python crew. But he certainly does! It also proves that we would totally survive in Ireland. (P.S. Check out The IT Crowd...it's brilliant! We are a wee bit addicted. British comedy with an Irish man in the lead? Sounds like good craic to me!)

God really got this one right. He definitely picked the best partner in life for me.
I love you Brand to Caprica and back :)