Love, Happiness and the lack of Money.

 I have to say that Aaron and I are ridiculously happy together. There is nothing I enjoy more then being with in five feet of my very pretty husband. And when I am not with in five feet of him, I feel a little at a loss... like some thing very important is missing. And I am also ridiculously happy when he comes back into my little bubble of "this is where Aaron should always be". You might even say its a bit extreme how excited i get when he comes home... and he has only been gone an hour.... :)
 It also never really matters what we do, as long as we do it together. We are a cheap date. But a couple of our tops favs are these: Watching movies or shows together snugged on the couch. Going and taking pictures of what ever place has caught our fancy. Going out to eat at new restaurants we have never been to before(very easy to do here as we have been no where before :D) Going and sitting on the beach(this can also include picture taking and or food)
 And there is no one else I would ever want to be with, or any where I would ever go if he wasn't with me. He is my home and my safety. My comforter and my provider.
 Things lately have been... a little rough in terms of money and jobs. We both pretty much lost a job and have been searching to replace them. With out much luck at this point. And though it is hard, and I get beaten down with worry and stress some times, there is absolutely no where I would rather be, then right here, broke as a joke, scrambling for money, learning how to live on nothing, living the dream and spending time on the beach, with my best friend and lover. And I am going to try to always be thankful that God brought us here, to this place of intense joy and intense struggle, just so I could spend so much time with my favorite redhead.
 All though, I am really praying hard, that our move to Nashville will provide just a bit more security and money. So we can up-grade ourselves from cheap/free dates, to cheap/costs-some-money dates. And be able to go back to eating at restaurants we have never been to before. And maybe even see a movie in the theater!! :D

The one year mark

Today is Aaron and my one year wedding anniversary. I keep telling him that now we are legit. Though I hope we never actually stop acting like the crazy newly weds we have been this past year.
 This has been  the most amazing journey, which is actually a good word for our first year... as we journeyed all over the world! haha. For sure we have had little bumps along the way, like our flight to Mongolia, and finding our place here in New Zealand. But over all its been amazing. I can honestly say I adore being married, mostly I am sure, because of WHO I am married too. He is (to sound cliche' and cheesy) so amazing and so far beyond the guy I thought I would get, I can't thank God enough for the man. :)
 Being in New Zealand these past months has been amazing, just for life experience and for growing as a couple. Being able to do our dream of moving over seas in the first year of marriage is some thing we will never forget, and always be thankful for. And I have to say, dealing with the huge stress of that kinda of a move in the first few months, that one, we handled the stress like champs ( well Aaron was the true champ, but I still handled it pretty good. haha) and we came out of with a pretty good perspective on what is worth worrying about in life. We know how to roll with the punches now for sure! :)
 I thought I would share some of the high lights, some of our favorite moments in the past year. Hope you enjoy them. :)
 Well to start, I have to say the wedding was so fantastic! I would get remarried every day if we could duplicate that day! It was so laid back and just fun. I wouldn't have changed a single thing about our wedding.
 Our honey moon was so awesome. But one of the best highlights, we would sit out on the deck of the house we rented at night and look at the stars while listening to the ocean. One night there was a few shooting stars that were so close we could actually see the flames and the smoke trail. Was incredible!
 Mongolia. All of it. So awesome. For me, being able to see where Aaron grew up, amazing. And to see such a cool country, and do it with Mom and Dad G still there was a huge blessing.
 We went on a cruise with my parents before we moved. Had some real crap weather, but so much fun running around a boat and islands with my folks.
 Spending time with Nathan, Jen, and Coen in OK. So grateful for them.
 Getting to know "our kids" here in New Zealand has been great. We love them.
  Out "dates" where we drive around and explore New Zealand together. We live in a gorgeous country.
And over all, for me, its been watching God provide for, literally, our every need. We could actually almost sit back and just watch Him work. I know I have grown so much, Aaron has too. I think we are both are really thankful that God put us in a place early on in our life together where we had to lean completely on God and each other. I think the things we have learned in this first year will benefit us for the rest of our 80 years together. One down.. 79 to go!!!!!!!
 Thank you to every one for being there for us in every thing. You have been blessings to us, and we love you.

Little People.

     Hey everyone! Aaron here! I apologize that its been so long since there has been blogging action here, but sometimes its easy to forget that you have things worth writing about!
     Recently due to a bout of warm weather and a beautiful cloudless night, my marvelous wife and I decided to take a drive and take some pictures of the stars. Since we both love photography, and both love a good bit of nature, our dates usually consist of us driving until we find something we deem 'photo worthy'.
     This night was particularly beautiful, no clouds, warm weather..the only deterrence was the occasional car driving by and a swarm of terrifying sheep (welcome to New Zealand). All this to say, you could see a million stars. Enough to make you feel fairly insignificant anyways. I would submit that we could all use the occasional dose of starry nights. A little blow to the pride, a giant picture that for once doesn't paint us as the center of the universe. Every day society tells us that we are amazing, we're something special, that we can accomplish amazing things. While this is nice and all, and it gives us the highly coveted 'warm fuzzies', its a complete lie. Now before you start searching for the largest and sharpest cyber-rock to cyber-stone me with, hear me out! All of those things, while a complete lie from hell, are also true.

      The difference is the source from which those warm fuzzy things flow. While I am actually something quite special, and have every intention of doing some pretty amazing jazz, that is only because of Christ in me. On my own I'm actually fairly corrupt and capable of innumerable atrocities! You can see why I really appreciate the fact that the crazy awesome God who bothered to make a universe that can make you feel like an amoeba in the ocean did what had to be done to free me from that depraved self and be amazing through me. Also you should be able to see why I actually get surprisingly angry when I see people trying to steal the credit for anything that is actually good and worthwhile. Most of us have heard it said that every good and perfect gift comes from above. That means that if it is legitimately good, and worthwhile, that we didn't do it! If this doesn't make sense, don't worry. I'm not the best at explaining things as deep and wonderful as this. However, do feel free to flick me and e-mail and I'll try again, because it will change the way you see everything once it sinks in! Also I love the stars...and photography..and my wife. But in a completely different order.

My Bathroom Blog

I have a love/ hate relationship going with my bathroom. So now.. my bathroom shall have its own blog!! :)

Love- We have an open shower (no curtain, with a wetfloor), which gives the bathroom a really neat look.
Hate- This means every time you take a shower.. the whole bathroom takes a shower.

Love- The bathroom is on the cold side of the house, which means cheaper heating bills.
Hate- This means every time you turn on the hot water, the climates clashing creates a tropical storm while you attempt to shower.

Love-The window is frosted over so no one can see in or out.
Hate- The bathroom has decided it misses seeing the out of doors and has started to grow wild thing in the shower, like mushrooms and mold.

Love- .... Ok, I have run out of things I love so this one is a hate hate :)
Hate- That the floor never actually dries
Hate- That the ceiling never dries either, and hence the whole room thinks its part of the shower and drips on you as you try to do your hair and make up.

 And thus concludes my bathroom blog. :)
 Also.. this is not a great picture.. but its my bathroom window... sooooo... now it's in the blog.

Unity, and How its Not Practiced.

Alright folks. I've been letting my lovely wife do the majority of the recent bloggage, but its time for me to step up and type! I recently took a trip up to Wellington with Ed Masters (my fellow youth worker from Leith Valley Church) to a conference type gathering called "Connect". The purpose of this gathering was for youth workers to get all motivated and whatnot via inspirational speakers and practical workshops. Unfortunately, I typically go into situations as such with a moderately cynical attitude that causes me to pick apart everything said and search for flaws in the messages that can then allow me to write off the speaker. This is one of my greater flaws as a person, a listener, and a christian.  Despite my attempts and success at doing so, I did manage to learn something. We as believers SUCK at one of the most basic principles of following Christ. Unity. My very desire to find a way to discredit the words of my fellow believers is living proof of this fact. Am I saying that everyone who believes in some form of a "god" should hold hands and sing kum by ya?? Absolutely not! But those who have a living active relationship with the God of the Bible, who share the core beliefs that makes true Christianity unlike any other form of worship in the world really need to learn how to get along and live as a single body. Maybe instead of listening to a sermon and picking out the bad parts to mock, we should be intentionally searching for the things that we can find encouragement in. Perhaps instead of looking down on the weaker brother and wondering why they aren't as spiritually educated with retarded christianeese and condescending terminology, we should be inspired by their passion to serve a God that they've just come to know. To be in awe of God's glory without the need to analyze and categorize it.  Anyways, you've suffered through enough of my rants. The bottom line? God is teaching me to be humble (never fun) and to love the body of Christ no matter how much I disagree with what some of the parts say. If its part of the body, then I can learn something or be encouraged by it!!!
-On a side note, the cross-eyed donkey that I found in Wellington made me laugh, so I took a picture...nay, like 50 pictures :)

The things you don't think about when moving over seas...

Like vacuums. I can honestly say I didn't give the type of vacuum I would have here a single thought. Why would I right? Well.. I am surely giving it thought now. Up-right power heads are pretty much the most popular in the states now.. I am sure there are still some with the body and the long hose to the brush head.. but for the most part all vacuums have a powerhead. Which I won't lie to you folks, makes vacuuming a thousand times easier. Here, I can't find a powerhead vacuum anywhere. Well.. I did find one, but its look a little scary. It was cordless.... how much life can a vacuum have running on battery power?? 

 Every one always asks me what do you miss most about the States? And I always draw a blank. Because over all things aren't that different here. Till I do some thing, like try to vacuum my house. And then I realize I really miss American vacuums. Or when I go to the grocery store to buy chicken noodle soup, cause my tummy is being off, and there is NO canned chicken noodle soup. Now I must admit.. I did NOT see that one coming. I stood in front of the soup section for a good 15 mins, reading and re-reading, swearing I had to be missing it some where. I wasn't.( though what they have stocked can change so it might be there next time.. I am going to look again) Or hot dogs. There is no hot dogs here. Not that I need a hot dog... it's just really strange not to have hot dogs in the grocery store. 

 I really missed Western dressing.. I made my momma ship me some, cause the salad dressing here, while they have some of the same kinds, they don't taste the same. The ranch all tastes like extremely light ranch, and the french looks like a green italian dressing.... I am thinking it't not the same kind of dressing, as ours french is red. 

 Or deodorant. I actually couldn't find it at first. It looks nothing like our deodorant. It's a strange shape I can't actually describe... works just fine.. just looks so different I couldn't find it!!! 

 So these are a few of the things I miss about the States. Nothing important. Just the little every day things that every now and then pop out at you and scream, "You are not in the States anymore hunny!!" And you shake your head, say "Huh, didn't think of that one." And keep on walking through the store. 

The Job, and the Faithful Stranger.

So I, Lisa, finally got a job. I started on Friday at a salon called Clip Joint. It's a nice step up from Cost Cutters, and while  no one tips in New Zealand, the up side of that is that I am making a flat hourly rate, no matter how many heads of hair I do a day. So while I am building a clientele, I am still making good money. Thank God. Takes alot of the stress off. And I am pretty excited about being able to slow down and just do hair, no more rushing about... it's an amazing idea and I am really starting to like it.
 I will only be working two days a week, Fridays and Saturdays, so Aaron and I will still have time to hang out and go bum about and explore the island :). It's wonderful to be working and still have time to just hang out with my man. I do so like hanging out with him, after all.
 And as if God blessing me with this job wasn't enough, Today I was helping out one of the other girls with her color, and through chatting with this woman, it turns out she is a christian. So she was asking me all about how we came to be in New Zealand, and said she was impressed with us moving over here. She was just a really nice lady. But as she was leaving, she calls me over, pulls a small envelope out of her purse saying, "I don't usually carry this with me, but that just proves every thing happens for a reason." Hands me the envelope and leaves. I opened it after work, she had given me her tithe for her church, and it wasn't a small sum. I couldn't believe it. Things were getting tight with out me working, and that little envelope just gave us a really nice bonus, to easy the strain till my checks start coming in... God bless her tender heart. We would have been ok with out the money, but I can't thank this lady enough just simply for blessing me by her faithfulness. Almost brought me to tears, this kindness of a stranger.