Friday Love - the in-laws.

my in-laws (must i call them that? it sounds so formal!) are so great! when i was born, i was blessed by an awesome, circus-like family, which is soo much fun and i love them like crazy. but to be put into another great family when i got married? that's just too much good to be given to me from jesus. (we are missing a few ppl in the pic above: matt, jana, and sean. but it's okay. they were replaced by the creepy guy to the left in the green shirt oogling at our weirdness.)

to show how awesome they are (and to describe them a little bit), i want to leave you with an e-mail that was circulated through the klentzman family (that i do believe was found and edited by my dear sister jill). you have heard of the 5 love languages book, have you not? well, this version of the book would be called "The 5 Love Languages: Klentzman Edition":

(1) teasing (the Klentzman edition parallel to 'words of affirmation'): making fun of you = we love you a lot and think you're great!

(2) food (the Klentzman edition equivalent to 'gifts'): if we love you, we want to feed you and feed you and feed you--I hope you're not diabetic! (specific examples include homemade ice cream with Mrs. Boothe cake and VATS of cookies)

(3) competition (sort of the Klentzman edition parallel to 'quality time'): we enjoy your company and express this by attempting to pound you to a pulp in a card game, a fun sport (frisbee, knock-out, kickball, etc.) or video game.

(4) pain: see 'physical touch' in older versions of the book           

(5) acts of service:  this one has the same title as in the older versions of the book, though there is some uniqueness in implementation in the Klentzman edition...  For example, we will force you to let us help you even if you don't want us to.  If we love you, we'll certainly BE THERE for you.  If you need your space, that's a personal problem (which we would offer to come over and help you with as well).  [Side note: we aren't easily offended, so if you truly don't want our help and tell us, we won't be hurt or upset.  We'll understand that you really want us there, you just don't realize it and we'll be sure to come help you.]  Also, if we love you, we'll volunteer you for opportunities to help others as well.  (This could go under 'gifts' also since we're giving you the opportunity to feel wonderful about helping someone.)

isn't that great?! it is all SO true.

Friday Love - rainy days.

today is a rainy day. seemingly, rain is pouring down all over texas from what i hear!

i do love rain. today was a day for me to be working hard indoors--on my computer getting stuff planned for camp, and packing. lately the weather has been so nice and sunny that i hate being stuck indoors. but today was perfect to be getting stuff done indoors, with the rain making beats on the window and the thunder providing for good rumbly bass! yay rain.

so my favorite thing about rain? well, number one would be playing in it, but for now my answer will be that it gives me an excuse to be inside without feeling guilty about it, regretting it, or feeling jealous of someone else. what's your favorite thing about rain?

i'm sleepy.

changes...

many, many changes...the biggest one is that we're moving! most of you probably know already...but we're moving to houston! it is crazy. we knew we'd end up there one day, but did not think it would be this soon. mark got transferred to a new facility off 1960 close to kuykendahl.

we went apartment searching online for a few weeks and decided to go with an apartment locator because of our big pup. and wow, not many apartments allow over 100 lb. dogs! we had about 10 to choose from, but some were so far away from mark's work, so we narrowed it down to about 7 and scurried around to each of them in one day. after a few days of thinking, comparing, and praying, we were left with one apartment that we liked, could afford, allowed big dogs, wasn't too far away from mark's work, and had nice amenities. SO our apartment is called greenwood forest, and it is only about 7 minutes away from mark's work on 1960! we are super excited. we also got first floor, which is great and what we wanted. first floor definitely is beneficial to us on many levels: easy when jonathan visits, carrying mark's dj equipment to and from the car will be a cinch, and when quinn gets hyper and starts running around, he won't bother anyone below us!

so, get ready houston, us newlyweds coming.

and i mean, who WOULDN'T want to be close to this guy?? :)
(that's my papa, btw)

yes, and we will be near my family. which is great. i do love my whole family, but i mostly miss my nieces, bri (13 y/o) and elise (2 y/o). AND i have a nephew on the way who will be here at the beginning of june. YAY!

other changes a-coming:

- camp starts in june. i will be there the whole month! us moving to houston def. is good for this, because i will actually get to see mark since camp is only about 25 minutes away from where we will live.

- the above means i will not be able to go to any of the weddings mark is DJing in june. that's FIVE weddings that i will miss. which will be different. but it will all work out.

- nephew coming (already mentioned)

- my brother and sister-in-law moved! they were in cypress, but now they're more in houston. a little further away :(  but still in houston, so it's all good.

- since we are moving to june, i will be starting my rec therapy business there. after camp ends, of course. but i am already in contact with the agencies i will be working with, and hopefully that means i will have clients by july or august.

(fun fact: this will be the 4th town mark and i will have lived in since being married. that's 4 towns in 14 months!)

Friday Love - being a sister.

i've decided to start a segment called friday love. this is where i will share about either a subject i love, an act or illustration of love that i came across during the week, or just my thoughts on love. and what better day to do it on than friday?! everyone loves friday!

why love? well, it might be cliche to some, but this one act (reference: love is a verb - dc talk AND 1 john 3:18) is my greatest reason for being. life IS love (reference: isn't she lovely - stevie wonder AND 1 john 4:9), and we love because god loved us first (1 john 4:19). there is no point in existence without the act of love. without love, where would you be now? (reference: long train runnin - doobie brothers. haha sorry. that's all for the lyric references. i promise.)

just go ahead and read 1 john chapters 3, 4, and 5 for yourself. my favorite chapters. on to my first friday love.

i love being a sister. when i was younger sometimes i did not, but that was only when carley (little sis) bit me, corey (big bro) farted on my pillow, or stacey (big sis) "borrowed" my tweezers and didn't let me know. sheesh. what horrible siblings. funny how growing up really did make me thankful for what i have, and even thankful for the times my siblings "wronged" me, because now it is just something we can reminisce and laugh about.

this week i was shown why i love that i'm a sister. stacey and i got to vent about things together. we are both pretty good listeners and we're both realists, so we're not the kind of people that will tell each other something positive and up-lifty just to give false hope. so we just vent. and it's great. i didn't get to see corey much when i visited. when i did see him, he was frustrated with a few things that were going on. since i am his sister, i got to give him a kiss on the cheek. for corey, this probably annoyed him and made him smile on the inside at the same time. he really loves his sisters. and carley helped me with setting up skype on my computer, even though she is miles away and could have been doing something much more fun with friends, since finals are over.

today i will thank my jesus for giving me siblings, and for letting me be one. i know i might not always be the greatest sister, but my siblings have never hesitated to forgive me for something i did to them. loving me is not a question or a matter of debate or thinking or choice. they love me because i am their sister. and that's such a relief!

plus, we're silly.

kyle's portraits!

kyle, one of my best friends and one of mark's groomsmen in our wedding, came to visit me and mark in dallas for his spring break. (why dallas? i have no idea.) ahem, anyway... he asked me to take some portraits of him for his mom as a mother's day present (awww).

we went to deep ellum again (where i went to take some portraits of cynthia, as well), and found more cool buildings and colorful places. twas fun.