Well,...

I have no pictures to post today. Mostly because Mac is napping without his powercord this afternoon. But I'll do any update without the visuals today. It has been 10 days since we got married! The few days before the wedding were absolutely nuts. The wedding went with a hitch, it was fun, and its OVER! No more planning! YAY! Moving on, I flew for the first time on our way to Houston for our connecting flight to Seattle. It was rough. I cried, almost threw up, and well....surprisingly, Aaron didn't have any bruises on him! We did everything there is to do in Seattle...the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, rode the light rail, EMP,(no ferries though.),s aw the boardwalk. Then we went to Cape Flattery, Forks, and La Push. A four hour drive from Seattle...totally worth it. It was absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking. The most relaxing part of our trip. Green-blue water that I could've swore belonged in the Caribbean, seals, a ocean as far as you can see. After Cape Flattery, we made a pitstop in Forks. The Home of Twilight: Where Vampires and Werewolves are Welcome...and shirts are optional. Seriously, that was the tagline for the motto of the city. Ha. After leaving Forks we drove to La Push, saw the home of Jacob Black,too bad Taylor Lautner wasn't in! And then went to La Push's First Beach.THE most beautiful beach I have ever seen. HUGE islands everywhere, moss covered rocks, and a beautiful sunset to top it off :) We then drove back to Seattle. (we did more there, but I need pictures to show it!) Our last day we spent shopping and went to the Original Starbucks :). All in all it was a beautiful honeymoon. When we got back, it has rained and flooded. We're working on the house and thats about it. :) Ive been seen for a few days but I'm recovering...stinkin' Arkansas weather!! More to come!

BIG changes!

Well, WE'RE BACK! We're married! We went to Seattle/Tacoma/CapeFlattery/La Push/Forks, WASHINGTON! WE'RE MARRIED! I can't stop saying it! Its been a crazy 2 weeks since my last post! This one will serve as a catch up post and hopefully tomorrow I will have honeymoon pictures up!

Grace

grace: undeserved favor. elegance. divine approval.

I can't decide which quote is more true of God's grace. Relient K's "The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair." or David Crowder's "His grace is an ocean and we're all sinking." I guess that they are equally true in different aspects.  I talked to my Sunday School class a few weeks ago about grace and they had some interesting things to say. I had one little girl tell me that grace was when she was bad, but didn't get in trouble for it. Another kid told me, that grace was how a girl walked in a pageant. My favorite one was a little boy who said grace was what he knew he wanted.At 11 years old, he knew he wanted grace. That shocked me. When I was 11, grace to me was the middle name of the annoying girl in my class. This moment may have shocked me, but it convicted me to. Was grace something that I knew I wanted? Of course. But was it something I always thought about? I know its something I need, but I rarely remember to ask for. I shared the Relient K quote with my class and they had to think about it for a second. The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair. I explained how if life was fair, we would get just what we deserve. One little girl asked me, so if I lied what would happen? I told her the flat out, honest, scare you to death truth. Lying is a sin. And if God didn't give us grace, we'd go to hell. Plain and simple. And it was then that they grasped the truth behind the beauty of grace. Grace isn't something you should forget about. its something you should beg for everyday. God's grace is so vast, so overwhelming that it might scare people to ask for it. David Crowder compares God's grace to the ocean. Say you're out on the ocean,smack dab in the middle of the Pacific...would you just jump in? Would you ask for bigger waves? I wouldn't!! But here's another beautiful part about grace...it may be overwhelming, but it saves you. Its water you need to survive. Without grace, you're a goner.  "His grace is an ocean;we're all sinkin'."  God's grace is the ocean. You gotta have the desire, the hunger, the courage to jump in and let yourself sink, because you know He is there to catch you, save you, LOVE you. Sorry if I sound like I'm talking to a bunch of 11 or 12 year olds, this was my lesson for that age group!

visualTENart

Aaron and I LOVE photography. Whether take it, be in it, buy it, look at it, whatever. We LOVE it.

So here are 10 of Shannon's favorite photos, currently. These are constantly changing.

 Aaron's will be added to this post once he decides on his.

These aren't in a favorite order. They're just here.

1. Scott Mutter "Church"

2. Beaty Photography

www.beatyphotography.com

3. Myself...

I took this of my engagement ring and wedding band.

 4. No clue. I'm a HUGE fan of b&w photographs of trees.

5. Love dandelions. And nature. Most of these will be nature.

6.Pure Happiness.

7. Best day EVER.

8. Beaty, again. One of our engagement pictures.

 9.Beautiful.

10. Free.

I love how photos capture things you wouldn't normally see.

Procrastination

I'm not usually one to procrastinate. But here lately, with everything piling on top of me...I just keep putting stuff off hoping it will do itself. But, as I'm figuring out...nothing will just do something itself, including me. So this is me procrastinating at work, when I should be finishing divorce decrees and complaints, letters, filing, etc. 

So, lately my phone has been driving me absolutely crazy. It will text on its own, get on the internet whenever it wants, start vibrating randomly, and lock me out. Sounds like an awful child doesn't it? Well, we've come to the conclusion that I am just going to have to suffer through the next two weeks with this phone, and then my patience will be rewarded...with an iPhone4! Finally, I am joining the world of Apple, and *hopefully* my phone troubles will be, for the most part, over. We'll see. Don't let me down iPhone4! I already have an Otterbox picked out for it and everything... lavender and white Defender series! And trust me, I NEED the Defender series....I have dropped my phone more than anything. Probably why it doesn't work....

Speaking of things not working....I've been working on this while picking out my Defender case, listening to Carrie Underwood, and blowing bubbles with my watermelon gum. Very productive afternoon. Its definitely the "its-3-in-the-afternoon-and-I-hate-my-job-blues".

An hour and a half later,  I'm still trying to come up with something to say. I give up I guess. Try again tomorrow.

Picture of the Day:

i absolutely LOVE umbrellas!

מוסיקה כדי לאוזניי

I thought today I would post a few songs and their videos, that we've really gotten hooked on lately.

And trust me, there is a HUGE variety.

**This is the song I'm walking down the aisle to**

**just a fun song**

**Can't wait to learn to play it**

These are 3 songs, that here lately we've been listening to over and over.

And now for a quick update....

We're 11 days away from the wedding, and boy are we ready for it. Not in the sense that we have everything together, but ya know.

Our Sunday school classes seem to be growing!!

Seattle is sounding better and better everyday.

THE SUSPENDERS ARE IN!!!!

Embry&Elliot are as ornery as ever, with the exception that Elliot isn't

jumping up on me as much anymore!!

I have LOTS of tulips coming up!! Pictures tomorrow, I promise!

I bought 2 gnomes. And they are super cuute!

I think that's it.

~Shannon

Picture of the Day:

Can't wait to see this in person!!!

Survivors

Well, I think we are starting to recover from this weekend's festivities. Friday night, we had our Bachelor/ette Parties. And let me tell you, our attendants who aren't married better watch out, and the ones that are better be thankful, because OH MY WORD. We're not going into the explicit details of what I, Shannon, had to do, but there will eventually be pictures and videos uploaded. Aaron had it easy, with the exception of his outfit.  Here is what they made us wear:

 

Other than this public humiliation, we had fun. Another party, some sickness, CTS competition, and some friend time...the weekend was over and its back to work.

  Hopefully, Ill have more pictures this week to show.

Roar

We are officially into wedding month! 15 days exactly, so wedding half-month, I guess. Its also April Fools Day. I am hoping what happened this morning is just some cruel April Fools joke I unknowingly played on myself. I was playing with my ring this morning, and noticed that...the diamond is loose. Yep, loose. Not gone, so the situation could be worse. But we're two weeks away from the wedding. This is NOT what I wanted to deal with right now. So, on my lunch break, I am headed to Kays to rear my head, because Bridezilla is about to be unleashed. I called over there and they said it will take 12-14 days to fix it. NO WAY. It will take max 7 and it will be here next Friday at the latest. That's it. Okay, calm down. I've been good for the last 10 months. I've only snapped once. So Bridezilla isn't here to stay. 

Anyways, our bachelorette and bachelor parties are tonight and we are getting excited!! Okay, a little nervous. I haven't been Bridezilla for ten months, because I knew my bridesmaids were in charge of this and, to be honest...i'd be scared! Will post pictures hopefully tomorrow of what goes down. All I know is glow in the dark hair dye, a tutu, and glitter is involved in at least one or both of our parties. OH. Boy.

Moving on, instead of a picture of the day yesterday, I added a video. So I think today will be another video and then, I'll get back to pictures. Here is our proposal video, in honor of my ring getting fixed:

And to confirm, I did NOT throw up after. I hate being in crowds and well, I was surrounded. But he did perfectly. :)